Waiting for Them to Leave
by shattershell
Summary: After a lot of victories and a lot of travel, Ash and Pikachu head back to Pallet Town to celebrate with their friends and family. Ash is also planning to take some time to rest and reflect on his journey before leaving again. But he doesn't know that his next adventure, which will require him to develop in a whole new way, is about to be unleashed upon him.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello. The story is set long after Ash won the Alola League and continued with his travels, but keeping with the same continuity where Ash doesn't age much. Incorporates some elements from the games, especially later on, and some OCs appear in insubstantial roles, also later on. One of the OCs is important to the story I guess, but doesn't interact with most of the characters and is not a love interest for anyone. The first part of the story takes place in Pallet Town only, the second part takes place in another region. thanks for reading.**

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Part 1: Party at Ash's House

1

Champion, is a word, a word by which Ash Ketchum never thought he'd be referred as, not ever in his life. Certainly not after losing in the Kalos League final.

Of course, he bowed to try again almost immediately after being defeated. Because his determination was incorruptible and unending. But after so many disappointments, on so many different regions, many chances that seemed like they were the best, with each time feeling like the right time, he hadn't gotten it. It just made sense for him to stop thinking he'd ever get it.

But then he went and got it.

After many failed, albeit fruitful attempts, Ash Ketchum became the League Champion of the Alola region. Our hero made out of sheer willpower, finally accomplished one of the many, many goals which he had voraciously set for himself. The whole land saw him raise the trophy in a glistening haze of joy, with a rampant crowd celebrating his victory behind him, all inside a giant, majestic stadium which could barely contain their overflowing spirits. He then celebrated with all of his pokemon as well as his friends and his mom.

And then they asked him what he would do next.

Ash couldn't give them an immediate answer, because he didn't have one. He didn't know what he would do later, but he did know what he would not do; he knew he wouldn't stop. And he sure didn't. Right after he felt his adventures were finished in Alola, Ash traveled to another region, where he also had countless adventures, and then he became the League Champion for the second time. And then he traveled to yet another region, and to another, and to another, and he became the League Champion in all of them. It seems, that after tasting that sweet victory for the first time, he just couldn't give it up, he just couldn't stop. And he didn't want to stop. So after many regions, and many victories, many smiles and trophies raised, exhilarated crowds chanting his name, there he was again, lifting the trophy. On yet another region. A land which, with all of its gyms, pokemarts and pokemon centers neatly distributed on its many cities, made up the monumental region of… of… I can't remember. Well, regardless of the region's name, in fact, regardless of the region itself, which allowed him to register six of his beloved pokemon, as well as himself, into the prestigious hall of fame, I think we can all agree that the achievement on its own still stands, just like all the others. And besides, the region itself didn't win anything, our hero and his team did, and none of them, exceptional individuals, belongs to any specific land, but to themselves, so there's no point in dwelling on my omission by ignorance.

Furthermore, our story, which chronicles the next stage of our hero's journey, after he has become tired of winning, doesn't take place within the region he officially conquered on this particular, very special year, in fact this next stage of his life doesn't encompass only one region. However, it does begin on his home region of Kanto which, perhaps, because of the significance it holds over our hero's life, it's more important than any other region, certainly more important than any region whose name I can't remember.

Anyhow, almost immediately after completing all of his objectives on this region, the name of which doesn't matter past this point, our freshly crowned Ash decided to go back home for the first time after many victories. Before he left for Kanto, however, he said his bittersweet goodbyes to the friends he had made on this land: Sammy Jo and Francis Romanoff, an up-and-coming coordinator with a lively demeanor, and a brooding-yet-bumbling librarian, respectively. Immediately afterwards, he and his inseparable companion as well as his best friend, Pikachu, boarded the plane that would take them both all the way to their home town on Kanto, and the two lovingly abandoned friends and their land, none of which Ash or Pikachu would ever forget, though they may not speak about them often, or at all, were fresh out of the picture.

Ash arrived in Pallet Town one Friday afternoon, carrying with him the last first-place trophy he had obtained, pridefully and with a joyous smile on his face, showcasing all of his shiny teeth, hoping to surprise his family and friends by appearing earlier than expected. However, that unique and unrepeatable smile was brought down from its awe-inspiring status, although he stayed at least a little bit happy and excited, at the same time he became confused, when spotting his house from afar, as he walked toward it, he saw many lights of flashing colors coming out from it and even shooting all the way to the sky, and heard throbbing music that must have been playing very loud, as it made the earth beneath him tremble noticeably, and it trembled more intensely as he neared.

All of the sudden it all came to a halt, the music stopped and the lights disappeared, and Ash felt even more confused. There was still more than enough natural light in order for him to identify many anomalies around; he was home, but he didn't feel as comfortable as he should've felt. Right outside of his house a giant stage had been built, and on top of it many speakers, all of them giant, had been set. Many lights had also been set right above the speakers, all of them professional grade, just like the speakers and that whole structure. It gave the place a rock concert vibe, which was exacerbated by the fact that some smoke was actually coming out, not necessarily from that structure, but from that place in general. There was also a bunch of garbage spread rather evenly all around, empty bottles and confetti, half-eaten plates of food, and too many napkins, disgracefully interrupting the natural beauty of the land. Even from afar he was able to notice a group of people admonishing an individual for having two giant glow sticks on his hands that he couldn't turn off. And then, as he got closer, and noticed some more people trying to put out a big bonfire set dangerously close to the stage, he understood what was going on, and he couldn't blame them, obviously his friends and family, for not waiting for him to begin celebrating his victory.

As he approached, in full view of the ensuing chaos, he was able to hear how they lamented that the element of surprise had been ruined. It was obvious they had a whole thing planned for his arrival, and that it had failed miserably; but at the very least they weren't blaming him for it; for arriving long before he was supposed to. It was only when Ash's mom, Delia, shouted her son's name with gusto, and ran up to him and hugged him eagerly, not giving the trophy on his hand a single glance as she warmly embraced her son, that everyone remembered it was supposed to be a happy occasion. However, as soon as everybody screamed, and the lights and the music were turned on again, at full blast, a bus, a big red bus, stormed in pretty much out of nowhere, with arms raised and swinging coming out of the open windows. It parked violently right in the middle of the party, its red gates opened, and not even a second later none other than the very tanned professor Kukui, an older friend of Ash's from the Alola region, came out with his arms raised, and released a loud shout full of energy, and then everyone else in and outside of the bus went crazy, except for Ash. All of the sudden everyone there entered into a celebratory mode from which it would be very difficult to come out, although it did happen. The frenetic atmosphere was disrupted, when just as suddenly as the bus arrived one of Ash's tauros, one of the many tauros which he had left in Kanto long ago, appeared galloping really fast, carrying a screaming man on top of it. It was none other than Scott, another older friend of Ash's, this one from Kanto; a rich, older friend, in fact the owner of the prestigious Battle Frontier; a rotund man, whose other distinct features were his curly blond hair, his black shades, his cocky smile and his wacky blue shirt. Even as he was being carried around violently by the angry, frenetic tauros, even as he screamed, he didn't lose his smile. The tauros ran all the way to the bright red bus and crashed right into it, nailing its horns on the side loudly and with violence. Everyone gasped, and then it was totally silent. A few seconds later another tauros appeared, clearly from the corral located rather near Ash's house, the gates of which were wide open. This second tauros was also carrying a screaming person on top of it. In this case it happened to be Ash's childhood rival and okay friend, Gary Oak, Samuel Oak's nephew. This second tauros also ran all the way to the bus and nailed its horns on the side of it, right next to the first one.

Ash ran to them.

"Scott! Gary! Are you okay?" he shouted.

"Yeah! Of course," Scott casually replied. His shirt had been ripped open and his glasses had been broken, but he seemingly shrugged it all off and continued. "Congratulations Ash, you are a League Champion once more! Right up there with the best of the best. Now listen here young man, I have a proposition for you. The rest of your life is waiting for you, and after winning so many league championships, you don't want to feel like you're taking a step backwards, so…"

"Scott! Ash just got here," Delia said. "Give him some room to breathe."

"Of course, of course. We'll have plenty of time to talk about this. Just listen to this, how does it sound? Ash Ketchum, celebrated League Champion, feared and respected Frontier Brain, of the majestic, magnificent! Battle Frontier!"

Ash ignored most of what Scott said, and knelt right next to Gary, who was ostensibly unconscious on the ground. Ash turned him over and shook him lightly, and called out his name. Slowly, Gary opened his eyes and regained consciousness.

"Uhh… What happened? Who are you?"

"Gary, it's me, Ash. You crashed into a bus with one of my tauros."

"Yeah, I meant to do that," Gary replied coolly, still on the ground with his eyes barely open.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, hey Ash! You finally came back, I always knew you would, some day. See, I told you, I always told you you'd be a champion one day."

"You did? As far as I can remember you always said I was just a loser who'd never be able to beat you, and you continued saying that even after I actually beat you many times."

"What? No way," Gary said, still on the ground, "you've got it all wrong. I always said you'd be a champion my friend."

"What were you even doing with my tauros?" Ash asked with a genuinely worried tone. "What were you thinking?"

"We were thinking we would ride them, and we did. The other guys are still at it!"

"What?" Ash raised his head and looked at the open corral. Gary was right, even from far away, Ash could see some random people were riding his tauros, screaming and raising their fists while dangerously riding the pokemon.

"What is going on?" Ash said, even more worried. "You guys are…"

"…Having a blast!" Kukui interjected. Ash stood up and faced him, and then Kukui gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.

"Congratulations champ, you did it, again," Kukui said. "I came all the way from Alola just to tell you that."

"Oh wow, thanks. Did the guys come with you?" Ash asked. He was referring to his esteemed friends from Alola, with whom he had shared all kinds of adventures during the substantial time he spent there.

"Well, about that…" Kukui said hesitantly. And before he could say anything else one person, just one person, came out of the bus. It was none other than Samson Oak, Samuel Oak's cousin, who had basically the same face as his counterpart from Kanto, but was more tanned, and had longer, lighter hair.

"Let's get this party started!" Samson Oak said after his feet touched the ground. Then he took a look at the premises. "Oh, I guess it's already started. In that case, let's get this party, continued!" And then he walked towards the maddening crowd. A bunch of people then came out of the bus, laughing and shouting. Ash didn't recognize any of them.

"As you can see some of us came," Kukui said. "But don't worry, the rest might come later."

Ash was soon bombarded with hugs and compliments and congratulatory shouts from strange yet somehow familiar faces and voices. He slowly managed to recognize some of them. There was Samuel Oak, who had given him his first pokemon, and who, along with his mother, first saw him off on his journey. There was the pink-haired Gym Leader Whitney, from Johto, who, like many other gym leaders, had defeated Ash at least once before he managed to best her. There was Brock, one of his very best friends and Gym Leader from Pewter City. His compliment brought the most genuine joy out of Ash. There was also Paul, Ash's rival from Sinnoh, whose congratulatory effort came out of his mouth reluctantly, and with a few grunts; it brought the most vicious and resentful enjoyment out of Ash. But he esteemed Paul, yes, even him, who never even smiled, who never treated anyone gently, so Ash felt even more proud from his compliment, genuinely so. There was also Candice, a blue-eyed Gym Leader from Sinnoh he barely knew, and Drayden, an imposing Gym Leader from Unova he'd barely talked to. There was Alexa, a better-regarded friend from Kalos, and also there was the esteemed Professor Sycamore, also from Kalos.

His friend Iris from Unova was also there, with a beaming face, a lively and cheerful girl, very physical. She hugged him really hard and shook him rather violently, and yet, Ash was happy to see her, even if he was also immediately angry at her. Because of this, he couldn't help but be moved, and charmed, because it brought him many memories back, a lot of them in fact. That was his friend Iris, and she hadn't changed one bit, in fact, none of them had changed one bit. Well, perhaps they hadn't actually changed, but the party they were having was certainly making them act extra crazy.

But there was no time for Ash to take a pause and reminisce fondly about the past, regardless of how much he wanted to do just that. People kept coming up to him to hug him and congratulate him. A long line of bodies ready to hug the champion appeared out of nowhere.

"Hey Ash! I don't know if you remember me, I'm Dawn's mom, Johanna."

"Of course I remember, how could I forget?" Ash replied. He told the truth. Dawn was one of his very best friends, she was from Sinnoh. And he could see a trace of her on her mother in front of him, she was definitely Dawn's mom; she had the same blue eyes, and perhaps, if she didn't have her hair cut short, she could've been mistaken for her daughter, if looked at from afar.

"Oh, that's so thoughtful, you're so nice. You really are one of the good ones Ash, you are a prize. Dawn is around here somewhere actually. Let me call her. Dawn!" Johanna screamed her daughter's name a few times, with her hand raised, but she didn't appear. Even as more people arrived to congratulate Ash Johanna stayed there trying to summon her daughter.

A point was reached where Ash just stopped enjoying what was happening around him, the music was too loud, the lights were distracting and overwhelming; the voices all blended together and became despised noise. He didn't know how much of it he'd be able to take. Luckily for him, out of nowhere a rock hit him on the back of the head. It was small enough not to hurt significantly, but had hit him hard enough to be noticeable, and so he turned back, slightly angered. He looked around, nothing seemed to be there, just the Oaks and Kukui and Sycamore gathered around the bonfire, and the bus with four giant holes on the side. But then all of the sudden he managed to notice a hand sticking out of the edge of the bus, a hand wearing a black and white glove, the palm white, the fingers black, which with a motion of the index finger told Ash to approach. Ash sneaked away and ran towards the bus, with all the people and the noise and the lights and the food it was easy to lose track of a person, even if that person was a League Champion, and so just a few seconds later the crowd dispersed and forgot about him.

Ash knew who had called to him, another one of his best friends.

"May!" Ash screamed, once he saw his friend from Hoenn. She immediately shushed him, and even put her hand on his mouth. Ash knew he had messed up, and he apologized for it.

"Do you want them to keep bothering you?" She asked him. It sounded like a reprimand.

"No, of course not," Ash replied. "What's gotten into them?"

"I'm not sure. I guess not a lot has been going on since you left. They just wanted a reason to celebrate. And now they've got one."

"Yeah, I suppose."

"What's going on? You don't seem too happy. You've just become a champion."

"I am happy. I am very happy actually. But maybe that's kind of the problem. I don't know if I want to keep going just yet. I don't know exactly what's wrong, I feel like there's something missing. I just don't feel like embarking in another adventure. Even Pikachu is worried about me, he couldn't wait to leave for another region once again, even before we arrived here." Ash took a peek at the party, and saw Pikachu gleefully dancing on top of the stage.

"Of course you feel that way," May said, "you've just finished a long and arduous journey, your body's telling you that you need to rest."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Don't worry, you'll be feeling like your old self again in no time. Just relax, and try to enjoy."

"Okay, thank you for coming all the way here from Hoenn."

May looked away from Ash for just a second. A thought came to her and she tried to ignore it. She knew Ash needed to rest, and there would be plenty of time to talk about his next adventure, anyway.

"No problem," she said, "I wouldn't miss it for the world. I was very excited when I heard you were coming back, Max was too. He's around here somewhere."

"Nice."

Ash looked at the party again. Everybody seemed like they were having the time of their lives. Ash thought about joining them, and it made him feel tired.

Far from them, far from the bus, Trip watched the tauros revel and swagger inside the corral, which was still open. His arms were resting on the fence, and he was completely quiet, and still. He was Ash's rival-turned-friend from Unova. When they first met, Trip took an instant dislike to Ash after learning he was from Kanto, a region he didn't think highly of. He actually changed his mind rather quickly about Kanto, which surprised even him, given that Trip was a quietly stubborn fellow, and he knew this well; at that point he was almost proud of it. That should've tipped him off, he should've realized, that the gullible and easily excitable guy from Kanto would end up becoming a League Champion. Trip had to admit it, he used to be a conceited jerk; he shouldn't have been so quick to judge Ash. But that's the thing, people change. And people don't ever stop changing, even if sometimes it seems like that isn't the case, change is unstoppable; even goals, motivations and desires; everything changes. Trip had changed for the better, or at least that's what he liked to think. He was still just as brief, and serious, and outwardly cold, and he couldn't deny that he liked being that way, and saw no point in changing that soon. He turned to the party, Ash was nowhere to be seen. Just people dancing, and having really loud conversations, and eating, and sitting, and staring. He looked at the freshly dented red bus, right when a little creature was coming out of it. A brown little pokemon with cream colored fur around its neck, gleefully jumping down the stairs and to the ground on all fours, all four paws that was. He knew the name of that normal-type species, but he couldn't remember it at that moment. It was one of those situations where he knew exactly what it was, it wasn't like it was a rare species, in fact the opposite was true, it was incredibly popular and yet he couldn't remember the name. That little pokemon, it was rare to find it in the wild and yet every other trainer somehow seemed to have one. He stopped thinking about that when he saw who came after it. Behind that pokemon came out a short girl with a bashful semblance. Even from afar Trip could notice the nervousness on her blue eyes. At least they seemed blue from that distance. Maybe it was just that she seemed shy in general, or that she was dressed all in blue, except for the yellow decoration on her short dark hair. She was fair-skinned, and short and slender. Trip couldn't take his eyes off of her as she made her way towards the bonfire.

A bit far from Trip, also leaning against the corral fence, was Misty. She was the first person Ash had befriended when he started his journey—although perhaps befriended isn't the right word, certainly not the right one to describe how their relationship started. For a while after they met, they hated each other. There wasn't a genuine hate between them, not concrete contempt, but there was genuine annoyance, which remained even after they became friends. Both Ash and Misty hated how easy it was for them to get annoyed at one another, just a couple of words sufficed for an argument to ensue. At the same time they were very good friends. Misty was genuinely happy for Ash, but she didn't like all the attention he had gotten since he started winning so much. She felt it was totally unnecessary, even if Ash had won so many League Championships. Misty thought all the praise would go to his head, it would make Ash even more unbearable. Right next to Misty was Ramos, a Gym Leader from Kalos, a jolly old man with a carefree demeanor, and a peace of mind achieved by longevity and experience; bald and with a mustache, and with a cane on his hand. He was afraid of Misty.

And away from them all, another girl watched in silence. Her plan was already in motion. She thought it necessary, it wouldn't hurt anybody, and maybe, just maybe, it would even end up being quite fun. All for the sake of the champion.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Two days later the party still carried on. It had continued with the same relentless pace it had started, and during that time, many more people, most of whom neither Ash nor Pikachu had ever seen before, let alone spoken to, had joined in on the fun. Come to think of it, at that point that whole thing had gotten way too big to be labeled as just a party. It had become more or less a festival of indeterminate duration, with intermittent flashes raging at frenetic rave mode, engulfing the place and kick-starting it again every once in a while. The stage had to be rearranged and acclimated to encompass the growing sea of people, the bonfire had become basically a controlled forest fire, and it took considerable effort to dance all around it. Many more pokemon able and willing to be ridden had appeared out of nowhere and were awfully ready to accelerate the pulse of the proceedings. And it had all ensued from the sheer inertia of the first push of their spirits; yet the change had gone unnoticed. As far as everyone there was concerned, it was still just a party. It was Ash Ketchum's celebration—appreciation—acknowledgment of his status as a champion—welcoming back—party. Everyone knew the reason why they were doing it; nobody cared about it anymore. They just wanted to keep partying.

Food stands had been set up, and some tables near them. Sitting at a table, a local boy and his pikachu were gleefully eating some donuts, and they were so focused on the task at hand, that they were pretty much isolated from the noise around them. Such was the enthralling effect of those tasty donuts.

Unexpectedly three girls sat at his table. One of them a long-haired blonde with sad blue eyes, quite mesmerizing and beautiful, sat by his side; she had a pink flower adorning her radiant hair. Opposite to him sat a brunette with brown eyes and thick eyebrows, and a strawberry blonde with little blue eyes sat right next to this second girl. Both of them were also quite attractive.

"Hey, it's you, isn't it?" the brunette said. The three of them were staring right at the boy, who couldn't physically respond. He was very startled. He looked at each of them for a couple of seconds without chewing the food in his mouth, turning his head in a mechanical fashion as his confused eyes moved from one to another. Each of the girls sported the same inviting smile, and had the same playful-yet-somehow-mischievous look in their eyes. The boy paused for another second, then he gave them a smile.

"We've met, don't you remember us?" the blonde with the flower on her hair said.

"Now you're too good to speak to lowly gym leaders like us, aren't you?" the strawberry blonde added.

"No! No, not at all," the boy brought forth, still with some donut in his mouth.

"Oh! He speaks! Don't worry baby, I'll refresh your memory, you can call me Daisy," the blonde with the flower said.

"And I'm Violet, just in case you don't remember," the brunette said. "I remember you, that said, I seem to recall you had darker hair."

"Yeah, people always say that to me."

"And I'm Lily by the way. That means this must be your partner in crime," the strawberry blonde said, as she patted the pikachu's head. "Wow! I can't believe I'm in the presence of the Pikachu who helped you win so many leagues."

"What?" The boy said, almost shouting. This startled him even more.

"Don't be so modest dear, you're a legend now. An international legend, whom we've been dying to meet again. That's you. So, did you miss us, Ash?"

The boy swallowed the donut and looked at each of them for a couple of seconds, again.

"Yeah, sure," he said. "I… am… Ash, Ketchum…" As he began speaking, he noticed none other than Misty, staring right at him, as she headed for their table, "…'s friend. My name is Ritchie, this is my pikachu, Sparky."

Ritchie the redhead who looked like Ash motioned at his pikachu, who waved his little yellow hand at the ladies as he bit into a donut, his fourth one of the day. The three ladies were decidedly not amused by this revelation.

"What are you doing? Leave Ritchie alone!" Misty said rather angrily once she got to the table.

"Jeez Misty, give us a break, who do you take us for? We were just having an innocent conversation with him. Wait! So you are not Ash?"

"Well, not exactly. But I kind of am, in a way. I'm his friend, and I did beat him on the Indigo League, so you could say I am better than him, better than the champion… I mean, I defeated him, even if it was before he became a champion. Did you think I was him? I didn't know we looked alike… Hmm, that's, interesting." Ritchie rubbed his chin while the ladies fulminated him with their eyes. He didn't notice. "Do you guys know each other?" he asked Misty directly.

"These are my sisters," she replied.

"Really? Nice. So, what brings you by? I guess the party," Ritchie obliviously continued, "It's a good party, I mean, it's not the best party I've ever been to, my cousin's party was way better, but it's alright."

Nobody answered him. Instead Misty's sisters unceremoniously raised from the table and walked away in silence, while Ritchie looked at each of them one last time. Then he bit into his last donut and looked at Misty, then smiled at her—with his mouth closed, of course.

Misty was about to smile back at him when she decided against it.

"Enjoy your last donut Ritchie," she said. Then she patted him and then Sparky on the shoulder, and also walked away.

Ritchie turned to her. "Thanks!" he said with a lively voice.

At the bonfire, professors Kukui, Sycamore, and Samuel Oak were silently but joyfully messing with the farthest embers from the fire. Next to them were Lana and her eevee, who had come all the way from the Alola region with Kukui, and who were also dear friends of our hero, who promptly approached them, wanting to save them both from yet another day of sullenly staring at the bonfire.

It's not like Lana hated parties, nor that she was afraid of crowds. It's just, that was a bit too much for her. She enjoyed watching people she liked enjoying themselves, but that place had become too hectic, and maybe, and maybe just for her, the party had gone on for far too long. Lana needed at least some peaceful time, perhaps by the sea, her favorite place, so she could recharge and join back with the hectic crowd again.

Ash took Lana and eevee to get some food, however on their way to the food stands none other than Scott, with his wacky blue shirt, his glasses, and the whiplash he had gotten from crashing one of Ash's tauros into the bus, blocked their path with his arms open and a smile on his face.

"Have you taken time to evaluate my offer, mister champion?" Scott said.

"Not yet Scott," Ash replied. "I'll wait for things to calm down before I decide what I'll do next."

"That's perfectly reasonable. You want to make sure that you're making the right choice. But have no fear. I can assure you this is the right choice. I only go after the best of the best and you, my friend, have earned your place among the best of the best. All that's left for you is to take it. Say yes, come on."

"Look, I understand, it sounds appealing, but right now I just don't think I can make a decision like that."

"But what are you waiting for? Your future will not wait for you."

"What are you talking about?"

"It is imperative that you make your choice now, any time you waste will always come back to give waste to you."

"Again, what does that even mean? Look, If I had to choose now, I'd have to decline your offer."

"No hurries!" Scott showed Ash his open hands and a big smile, as warm and inviting as he could make it. He looked mildly insane. "Please take your time. It is a very important decision after all. And why should you brood over it on your own? Specially when your friends and loved ones are right here to help you choose. Speaking of which." Scott raised his head and looked around desperately, then let out his voice as a really loud and aggressive guttural scream. "Trip! Trip! Where are you? Come here!"

Trip, not far from them, heard him well, and it irked him. He wasn't a child, nor a wild pokemon, to be yelled at like that. He even thought about ignoring Scott; who was very annoying, very pushy and would have it well deserved. But then Trip saw who Scott was talking to, and because of that and only that, he heeded his angry call.

"Come here," Scott said. "See Ash, this is your friend Trip from Unova. I brought him here. He has something very important to tell you." Then he turned to Trip and waited anxiously for him to speak.

"Scott wants you to become a frontier brain," Trip said reluctantly.

"Is that it? Come on Trip!"

"Why don't you think about it?" Trip added, at Scott's insistence.

"I will definitely think about it," Ash said.

"Trip! Try harder. Remember I brought you here for free."

"Oh yeah, thanks for that."

Scott let out an angry grunt which was quite funny to everyone else, and then he left.

Immediately afterwards Gary Oak, Samuel Oak's nephew, who was wearing a neck-brace and had a band aid under his right eye, hurried to approach Ash after he saw Scott walking away.

"What's up with that guy?" he said to the group. Then Gary faced Ash and moved on to say something else before he was distracted by Lana, and instead he focused on her. "Stop! Who do we have here?"

"This is my friend Lana," Ash replied amiably. "Lana this is Trip, he's a great trainer from Unova, and this is Gary. Gary was a trainer too, but he gave up and started working with his grandfather on his lab."

"No way Ash!" Gary quickly said, wanting to cut Ash off as quickly as possible. "I started as a trainer, then I was a researcher for a while, but now I am an entrepreneur, how's it going nice to meet you, I'm Gary."

He grabbed Lana's hand and leaned in to kiss it. Lana was mostly mortified by this, and felt generally awkward, specially with Ash and Trip there.

"What's your pokemon's name?" Trip asked all of the sudden. It took Lana a couple of seconds to react.

"Sandy. Sandy say hi." Sandy the eevee waved happily with its front paw, and Trip slowly and awkwardly waved back.

After learning their names Trip knew he'd be able to rest. He had been having a moderately bad time ever since he saw Sandy and Lana come out of the bus two days ago. He repeated their names on his mind, just for himself, and felt the soothing wave of closure wash over him. Externally, he smiled weirdly with his gaze lost.

Gary let go of Lana's hand and went back to Ash, grabbed him by the shoulders to stop him from leaving, and then let go of him in place, and started pacing around rather energetically as he spoke.

"So here's the gig, now that you're back as a champion, you need to find a way to capitalize on your newfound fame. Otherwise people will just keep bothering you for no reason, and then they will make money off of your fame while you just stand there gaining nothing. Do you seriously want people to make that money instead of you?"

"I guess not."

"Of course not! But don't worry about it Ash, I have it all lined up and ready. I have not one, not two, but three sponsors ready to sign you. And when that happens, I'll be able to get a loan to lease the building that will be the home of our new business…"

"What?"

"…Gary's, and Ash's, Frozen Emporium."

"What are you talking about Gary?"

"Hear me out. So, you know how in Kanto we don't a have a place to practice winter sports? Well now we'll tap into that market, which is ready for us to take it, and so we'll seize it and give the people of Kanto all the winter sports they never knew they needed."

"I can't deal with this right now," Ash said, averting his tired eyes from Gary and directing them at the ground.

"Yes you can, all you need to do is sign the contract—the contracts. Trust me, It'll be awesome, your face will be everywhere, from party plates to party napkins and party hats, and also dietary supplements for the elderly."

"What! Not dietary supplements!"

"Hey, you've got to start somewhere. After that will come the cool stuff. I'm talking about snowboards, goggles, pokeballs, your own merch. I mean, they will own the rights to your face, but only for ten years. After that you'll be able to re-negotiate, I think. Come on, you have to be in Unova tomorrow, there's a slot open for an appearance on a morning talk show."

"I'm not going to Unova right now!"

"You have to get your face out there. I guess technically it's not your face anymore, it belongs to dietary supplements, but still."

"I haven't signed anything, my face still belongs to me!" Ash said with his fist raised. He genuinely wanted to punch his so-called friend Gary at that moment.

"Right so what are you waiting for?" Gary continued shamelessly. "This will happen either way, the question is whether you're going to take control of the situation or not."

Three men wearing black suits approached Ash. The situation had quickly escalated to very strange levels, everyone could feel it. "We are very happy to embark on this partnership with you Mister Ketchum," one of the suits said.

"What partnership? What are you talking about? Gary!"

"Mister Oak, you told us the champion had already agreed to sign with us."

"Yeah, well he has agreed, now, right Ash?" Gary grabbed Ash's hand and tried to put a pen on it, Ash resisted. Meanwhile everyone else just stared at them unsure of what to do, until a dangerously hot flame appeared and then disappeared right in front of Gary, who stopped struggling with Ash and backed away immediately.

The fire had come from May's blaziken, who was standing right next to her.

"I think your business here is done gentlemen," May said firmly.

"But Ash hasn't signed yet, if he doesn't do it now somebody else will start…"

Blaziken threw his right fist at his open left hand, and it made Gary shut up. Nobody moved, until May imitated her pokemon's gesture and grabbed her right fist firmly with her left hand. She smiled, as Blaziken shot the men and Gary a piercing stare which made them fear for their lives. The men bowed down and ran away, and Gary went right behind them, acting completely out of fear.

Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader, and also a very good friend of Ash and May, approached the group with his arms crossed.

"This party is officially out of control," he said.

"I don't mind that everyone is having fun, I just wonder when it'll finally stop," Ash said.

"We're having trouble containing the bonfire," Brock replied. "Also, we were finally able to put all the tauros back in the corral."

"You're doing a good job Brock."

"Not good enough apparently," Brock finalized. And then they all pondered silently about it.

Pretty close to them, a kid attempted to feed an axew. The kid was actually May's little brother Max, bespectacled and rather insufferable, but at least he still cared about the state of the world. Meanwhile the axew he was currently trying to feed belonged to Ash's friend Iris, who was also close by.

Max tried to shove a little block of protein down Axew's mouth, however, the pokemon resisted his efforts.

"This will make you stronger! Why don't you eat it?" Max shouted as the axew audibly protested and kept his tiny mouth closed.

"Hey! Axew doesn't want it!" Iris ran to aid her pokemon.

"Why doesn't he? It's good for him. Eat it!"

"Leave him alone!"

Iris went for Max and they started struggling. Axew, at seeing his trainer in trouble, went to help but adorably fell on the ground after only a few steps.

Ash and Brock and May went to help. During Iris and Max's struggle, the ridiculously hard block of protein was shot out of their hands and it went straight to Ash's forehead, hitting his skull at harming speed, shaking his brain inside it. Ash went down on his back.

"Max!" May shouted, "You have to be careful! Ash are you okay?"

"…I think so," our hero whispered from the ground, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Brock consciously helped him up, but right when Ash stood up, Axew decided to react to Max's earlier gesture with a furious tackle, which missed the obnoxious kid by a lot and landed right on Brock's stomach, taking the air out of him, and taking him down at the same time.

"See, this is her fault!" Max cried out. "Iris doesn't know what's best for her pokemon. She doesn't know anything."

"I know more than you you little kid. You're just a kid!"

"Sure, I am a kid, but even I know what's better for your pokemon, which means you're really, really dumb."

"I'll show you how dumb I am!" Iris said as she prepared her hands.

They got in front of each other and prepared to strike, but before they could even wind up Blaziken appeared between them, with his fiery fists also visibly ready, and with only a stern look made both of them rethink their duel.

May made Iris and Max go straight for Ash and Brock and apologize profusely. The injured couple were still rubbing their respective injured zones with their hands, nevertheless they accepted their apology. That's when Dawn, Ash's very good friend from Sinnoh, arrived at the scene just to laugh cheekily at them.

She didn't say anything, she just smiled. And even though she was openly mocking them, neither Ash nor Brock could be mad at her. At the same time the three of them remembered the many adventures they'd had during their travels through Sinnoh. Dawn opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out of it, instead, her lips turned into a worried grin.

"Oh no," she then whispered.

Her mother Johanna approached Ash.

"Now what?" our exasperated hero lamented.

"I have to go!" Dawn said and then turned to leave, but her mother grabbed her by the shoulder before she could make her escape.

"How's it going, have you guys been talking?" Johanna said. "Huh, Ash, what do you think about my daughter? Is she behaving properly? How do you feel about her? What is she to you?"

"Don't worry, Dawn hasn't done anything wrong. She's a very good friend of mine," Ash replied attentively.

"Just a friend? Wouldn't you like to be anything else?"

"Mom!"

"What?" Johanna said, feigning ignorance.

"It's nothing Ash, my mom has been trying to set us up."

"Well why not? You guys look great together. On our way here Dawn was telling me how you were such a catch."

"Not at all! You said that! It was you." Dawn violently and desperately pointed at her mother.

"Well regardless of who said what, it sure is an interesting prospect, isn't it Ash? What do you think? You're certainly more than welcome to become part of my family. Ah, can you imagine, my daughter, married to a champion? I present her to you now, if you take the appropriate measures, of course. A ring will be necessary."

"A ring?" Ash exclaimed, still rubbing his forehead. "Why a ring? I don't want to fight her! May! Can't you and Blaziken do anything about this?"

"I'm afraid not Ash," May replied cautiously, "she's too powerful. If Johanna were a man, maybe, but she's not. She can eat us and spit us back out, and she knows it."

"Oh, no… When will everyone just leave?" Ash cried out to the heavens.

From afar, blue eyes gazed at our hero. The girl hated seeing him like that, he was getting more and more tired by the second. They were slowly, unconsciously eating him away. She knew it was up to her to rescue him from the sea of dancing bodies and laughing faces. And so she'd rescue him, or at least she'd try, very, very soon.


	3. Chapter 3

3

The partying continued, more people joined in. Some neighbors even opened up their houses to host any party-goers who weren't keen on sleeping on the ground during the night, for a price. And some of these houses, which had basically become hotels, had pools. Daisy Oak's house had a pool. She was Gary's older sister.

Daisy (Oak) had rented out her brother's room to a rich old lady from Kalos named Palermo, who was actually a famous producer of pokemon showcases on her home region, and who was currently enjoying the morning sun, while resting comfortably on a lounge chair by the pool. Palermo was wearing a giant pair of red-framed sunglasses, and a rather elegant two piece bikini of the same color. Life had been good to her, she was on vacation. In all her years she had never felt healthier, despite her advanced age; she looked great, and she felt even better.

Palermo had just reached the most pleasant, most sequestering stage of a particularly dreamy reverie, and was about to fall asleep in the transient quiet of the moment, when a disrupting noise very suddenly startled all of her sleep away, and then she was completely conscious again. And she was upset. She raised her head and lowered her sunglasses with the tip of her finger, which showcased the bright red of her nail polish, and proceeded to search around the pool for the source of the mischievous interruption, just so she could have a specific target to be mad at. It's not like she could do anything about it, the silent moment which allowed her to get in such a numb state was ostensibly an aberration of mythical proportions on that place. It was a party, the conversations never stopped, the random screams never stopped; the unbridled laughs, the music, never stopped; the strange explosions and crashes, were less common, however. So perhaps she didn't have the right to be mad, but that wouldn't stop Palermo, and she knew nobody there would be able to stop her either. Very quickly she eyed the new object of her contempt. At least that's what she had planned for him before she had a look. Once she did, the confusion that it brought her became more appealing. It was a brunette guy chasing three men wearing black suits, who sought to get away from him; it was actually Gary.

The sponsors circled the pool in a hurry and passed right in front of Palermo, as Gary desperately chased after them, and pleaded at them to stop and reconsider their deal, assuring them he'd convince Ash to sign the contracts, so that they'd get the rights to his face, so that he could get the money.

"Hey you!" Palermo shouted at Gary, once he passed by her.

He stopped giving chase to the frightened sponsors, who took advantage of the distraction to run away. Gary approached Palermo and got in front of her with a disgruntled frown on his face.

"Why are you shouting? Actually, what are you doing here in the first place?" Palermo said to Gary, from the comfort of her chair.

"Excuse me lady, I don't know if you are aware but this is actually my house," Gary proudly replied.

"Ah, so you must be _the_ idiot brother Gary."

"Hey! Just because you're older doesn't mean you can insult whoever you want."

"Um, I beg to differ. Regardless, I wasn't quite insulting you, I was simply using the words your sister used to describe you when she so graciously offered me your room."

"So it's your fault that I've had to sleep outside these past few days, she never even told me about it before she went ahead and rented my room to strangers."

"Well I ought to thank you, and perhaps I also owe you an apology. I took the liberty of rearranging some of your furniture, and of disposing of some other, in order to add some freshly bought items of my own."

"You did what!"

"At least I apologized."

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did. Tell me, what did you want with those men?"

Gary hesitated. He inflated his chest, closed his eyes and put his hands on his hips. "It's not like it's any of your business, but I'm about to close some important deals for the champion."

"Whatever you were doing, it looked like you were failing, hard."

"It may have looked that way, but it's all part of the plan."

"So you know the champion?" Palermo said as she adjusted her sunglasses.

"Yes, I've known him my whole life, we're basically brothers, and we're about to start our first business together."

"His name is Ash, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Perhaps I was wrong, you're not an idiot after all."

"Thanks."

"Yes. So, Gary. I may have a proposition for you. You see, those men you were talking to, they seemed familiar. In fact, I'm quite sure their brands are official sponsors of my showcases on Kalos. So if you want to get a deal with them, for the champion, and for yourself, I may actually be able to help you. But you must do something for me in return."

"Why would you help me?"

"There's a girl. A girl for whom I care, a reasonable amount. We're both from Kalos, she really wanted to come here, so I brought her. And she happens to be hopelessly in love. I think she has the potential to become a great coordinator, one of the best, but I fear her capricious crush is getting in the way of her career. Now, no offense Gary, but I just don't think you're the right guy to sway her feelings, that said, I might have just found the appropriate boy to get the job done. However, I need to get rid of the distraction surrounding him."

"What do you want me to do?" Gary said. He was already dangerously prepared to accomplish whatever task she set upon him.

Palermo smiled, the sun made the glass over her eyes glisten white.

The girl from Kalos with so much potential, to whom Palermo was referring, was named Serena, and yes, she happened to be a very good friend of our hero. More than that, she was in fact truly infatuated with him, and had been so, with the same fervent intensity, ever since she met Ash when they were just kids. She was the blue-eyed girl who had taken it upon herself to save him from all those people who selfishly wanted a piece of him. And she was ready to put her plan in motion.

When does a party end? Serena first thought to herself. When it gets too late? Obviously not. She was young, and she didn't like the kind of parties that bothered to start only when it got dark out, but even she knew the party wouldn't stop just because it got too late. So then, when everybody's tired? Could be, but if that were the case, then that possibility seemed far too remote for this particular party. But it didn't matter, because she got it anyway: a party only ended truly when everyone was satisfied. And according to her limited experience, the best way to satisfy people was to fill their bellies. After all, during her travels through Kalos with Ash, he seemed the most satisfied after his belly was full.

She set up a large table full of sweets of her own creation. The sight of all the colors of the rainbow made out of sweet, sweet frosting filled her with righteous pride, in fact, she had never felt more proud of anything in her life, chiefly from all the work that had gone into the preparation. During the arduous process, Serena reached a point where all she cared about was seeing how far she could take that assignment, how many sweets she could make; how many sweets it was humanely possible to make at a time. Because she knew she had gone as far as her humanity allowed her. At that point, it was more about proving it to herself; of course she was happy to do it for Ash, that's why she had decided to do it after all. But the pride she felt was all hers, all directed towards herself and her team. She looked at her braixen to her right, the expression on her face was the mirror image of her trainer's—she was just as proud as Serena. She then looked at her pancham to her left, the little black and white beast nodded with an air of accomplished coolness, and Serena nodded back.

"Alright, we did it everybody! Are you ready?" She exclaimed with her lively voice. Her pokemon audibly cheered and raised their hands to the sky. Then she went for it. Serena shouted, "Everyone, come have some sweets!" and immediately afterwards she got scared. A wave of screaming people ran to the table and started devouring her work indiscriminately, shamelessly, shamefully, and relentlessly. It was a traumatizing image which Serena was forced to take in full. Her eyes were so open it seemed her soul was coming out of them, first leaving her empty and then filling her only with terror, and disdain for the human race. They shouted and audibly delighted, her sweets were obviously delicious, but it didn't matter, because neither her nor her pokemon could enjoy it. They weren't disposed. They were unable to feel anything other than pure terror. All those people, they were worse than monsters. They were the monsters, with bottomless voids corrupting their insides. Her task was a rather noble one, all Serena wanted to do was feed some people, she just wanted to leave them satisfied, just for a bit. But very soon, and with a rather unpleasant view, she realized, it would take much, much more food to satisfy those people, if such a feat was even possible. At that point Serena still thought that was possible, even after what she had just witnessed. After only a minute all the food was gone. The perpetually hungry people cheered at her, asked for more, and commended her for her delectable work of art, but she didn't care, she—just like her pokemon—was unable to, in her state. After sharing a few vapid words the people left the empty table and went back to dancing and chatting and shouting and running and eating, yes, even more, and left the humbled team of bakers alone.

Serena knelt on the ground with her head down and her eyes closed, utterly disappointed. Both Braixen and Pancham, also terribly disappointed, did their best to console her, but it was of no use, the meringue massacre had taken a big toll on the three of them.

"What's happened here?" Professor Samuel Oak spoke, with his hands on his hips, and a benevolent smile on his face. He had arrived before they could notice, and stood right next to the sorry group.

"I just wanted to feed everyone so they'd be satisfied," Serena said. She looked at the professor, then her eyes went back to the ground. "But it was not enough, there were just too many of them, there wasn't enough food."

"There are too many of us, and much, much more food is necessary to satisfy all of us, and only for a moment."

"I had never worked so hard in my life. And it was over so quickly. It was like I hadn't done anything at all."

"I don't think anyone will starve, and there are other sources of food around so you need not to worry."

"I'm not worried about that. I wanted everyone to be satisfied so they'd leave. Maybe it's time to end the party. Ash just got here anyway, I'm sure all he wants is to rest."

"Hmm, I guess this has gone on for too long. And I suppose there's no better way to satisfy their spirits than doing so through their physical hunger—you're a very smart girl."

"Thank you."

"Yes, but how do you make enough for everyone?" Oak rubbed his chin with his finger. "Perhaps something can be done. Is there a way you could show me how you made those sweets?"

"Of course. But wait, I'm out of ingredients."

"That's no problem, we can ask Delia, I mean, Ash's mom. I might just have an idea." Oak laughed with his mouth closed, just for a little bit. His mind had entered into one of those mental dialogues that he loved so much. An idea was harboring alright. Serena's plan wasn't over, not by far.

Meanwhile, Ash had no idea of what his friend had just gone through. But it's not like he had it any better. That said, he was currently taking a breather from all the noise, from all the nonsense. He was resting comfortably under a big tree, short but wide, and leafy, with a lot of shade. The ground was soft and warm, and the breeze was cool and relaxing. He had his mouth open, and was smiling subtly. His eyes were lost in the sky, they were full of peace. He looked like he had completely shut down. For the first time since he had arrived in his home town he was able to truly calm down, relax his muscles, switch off his brain. There was even a moment where Ash felt like he didn't need anything other than that moment itself. He didn't need to carry on, he didn't even need to move, and more than anything else, it filled him with an incomparable peace, something glorious which he had never experienced before, which remained within him for only one second. But during that second, he realized he had discovered something else, something new. He could move, he would move, when it felt right, and if he genuinely wanted to do it.

He moaned in delight as he kept staring at the sky with his mouth open. There was some drool coming out of the right side of his mouth, but he didn't bother to clean it off. Right there and then, Ash decided to keep sitting under the tree until that unique feeling returned to him, and so he would remain there, even if he got hungry.

Right then Whitney, one of the toughest leaders from the Johto region, who specialized in normal types, appeared in front of Ash with an accomplished smile on her face.

Ash's eyes were ineluctably directed at her, the only source of jarring motion on his previously harmonious visual field, although it still took him a while to react. He stared at her with the drool coming out of his open mouth and his sight still sort of lost for a bit. But then when his mind finally clicked he wiped his lips very quickly and then closed his mouth, and tried however he could to get a better posture.

And he reacted this way mainly because Whitney, with whom Ash was sensibly acquainted, looked rather different from the way he remembered her. She was wearing sandals, very short blue shorts, very tight, and a skin-gripping tank-top that left a considerable part of her midriff bare.

"Hey," she said, suggestively, "it's hot today, isn't it?"

"…I suppose so," Ash replied, after five full seconds of lethargic mental processing.

Whitney took Ash's response as an invitation. She sat right next to him and rubbed her shoulder against his own abundantly, almost forcefully.

"So, Ash, I wanted to ask you something. We are good friends right?"

"Yeah, sure."

"And you like me?"

"As a friend? Of course."

"And as more than a friend?"

"Oh, well, I don't know."

"You don't know?" Whitney got a bit more serious. "Look, I'm just joking. Not really, but that's not the point. The point is this, you, Ash Ketchum, are a champion now, and I want to get closer to you, because, well, I want to get stronger. I want to get much stronger, and I think you're the perfect person to help me. And who knows, maybe I could help you, if you want…" Whitney went back to her more playful tone. "How does that sound? Wait, you don't have to tell me now, but let's have a match—I know you'll like that—right now. How does _that_ sound?"

Ash could never say no to a match, even if as an official trainer he wasn't legally allowed to—he genuinely loved battling along with his pokemon. For a long time, he had felt like during a match was the only time he was really alive, and the time outside battling was just the dull procedure that had to happen in between. But that had passed, and he had started seeing his time outside of battles, outside of training, as something more. That said, that something more was not enough for him. And yet, he just couldn't go back to the past, where he only could abandon himself in his training and forget about everything else. That said, at least he would try.

He raised from the ground with his fist raised to his chest, the enthusiasm returned to his eyes.

"Pikachu, let's go! Where are you?" Ash shouted. And nothing happened. Pikachu didn't arrive, he didn't even listen to his trainer's call.

Ash tried again, he shouted and then went to look for his pokemon, with Whitney oppressively close behind him holding a readied pokeball in her hand. But it was of no use, Pikachu didn't appear. Who did appear, however, was Candice, another leader, who hailed specifically from Sinnoh. She specialized in ice types, and was known for wearing light clothing at all times, even with the harsh cold weather of her town. Based on this, it shouldn't have been a surprise when she appeared in Ash and Whitney's way barefoot, wearing a very tight pair of diminutive pink shorts, and a very small, completely unbuttoned white shirt, which barely covered any of her torso, over a very visible pink bikini. She waved enthusiastically at the pair, both of whose jaws nevertheless dropped at the sight of her.

"Hey Ash! It's unbearably hot today isn't it!" Candice said. "I'm not used to this climate, so I had to make some adjustments to my wardrobe. What do you think?"

She walked up to them merrily as Whitney wished her dead with her eyes.

But Ash didn't respond. He was too distraught, in fact he had gotten dismally sad all of the sudden, because Pikachu was nowhere to be found.

"Have you seen Pikachu?" he asked Candice.

"Yeah, he was just dancing with some girls. They love him out there."

That made Ash felt even worse. Sure, now he knew where Pikachu was, but that just meant he wouldn't join Ash. At least when he didn't know where Pikachu was, Ash still had the assuaging doubt. Now he knew, he was alone. He took out his wallet and looked at his trainer card. It was his original trainer card from Kanto, wrinkled and weathered by time. He had been advised to change it for a new one many times, but he vehemently refused; it was too special. Ash neared the card to his eyes and looked at his picture. It showed the jolly face of a kid, with eyes overflowing with life and a whole universe ready to enfold before them. His future was certainly more attractive then, when it was but a mystery. Ash had tasted victory, sure, it was sweet like nothing else. But perhaps too many of it made it bitter. And so, Ash abandoned himself to despair.

"Pikachu loves it out there," Ash said despondently. "He hasn't stopped partying since we arrived. I'm getting worried."

"Oh please, he's just having fun," Candice said. "You should do the same, come on, let's go to the dance-floor."

Candice promptly grabbed Ash's hand, with both her hands, and pulled him towards her with quite a bit of energy. However, before she could take ownership of him, Whitney skillfully took a hold of his other hand and stopped them dead on their tracks.

"Hey Whitney, is something wrong?" Candice said, trying to hide her anger.

"Ash and I were going to have a match," Whitney replied, just as reticent, and ready for a confrontation.

"But it's obvious Pikachu doesn't want to, so maybe some other time, or never."

"Hey come on Candice, look at what we're doing. We're all adults."

"No we aren't."

"Fine, but we can still act like adults."

"Of course, we're better than this."

"Great, so let go of Ash."

"No you let go first!"

And then they both pulled from him rather hard, and didn't let go. Ash was too sad to care that he was clearly in pain, and so he just let it happen. After all, he felt just like a motionless piece of meat, a league-championship-winning piece of meat, for which both Whitney and Candice were fighting like two angry and hungry—hangry; perhaps—houndours.

Misty took notice of their struggle, she wisely called May for assistance. However, on their way to help their friend out of that messy situation, Misty's sisters—Daisy, Violet and Lilly—blocked their path with hands on hips and mischievous smiles on their faces.

"Not so fast," said one long-haired sister, sensually.

"Where do you think you're going?" said another, less so.

"Let us through!" Misty demanded, however her sisters didn't give up one inch. "What do you want with Ash?"

"What do _you_ want with him?" replied another one of the opposing sisters.

"He's our friend, we want to protect him," May interjected. "Ash hasn't been acting like himself lately, and he hasn't had a chance to recover his energies. Then you guys come here with your madness and don't let him rest. Maybe it's time for you to leave."

"Oh yeah, though girl? Don't worry, he'll get plenty of rest with us, won't he, girls?" the alpha sister, Daisy, exclaimed. Then her sisters crossed their arms and raised their chins. "And you can be sure of it, because we're not going anywhere."

They stepped forward, making Misty and May back away cautiously. Because, not only were they outnumbered, as even individually both girls knew they shouldn't underestimate any of them. The three sisters were Gym Leaders after all.

Things seemed rather grim for such a lovely day. It was cloudy but there was plenty of light, and the breeze was nice enough to be noticeable only when desired. The time didn't really call for such a seemingly mean-spirited confrontation. Perhaps it wasn't that bad, what could her older sisters do to Misty anyway? Regardless, the pair of still-sane girls felt like they were in danger, not of dying, of course, but rather, danger of continuing their lives under the hold of young and attractive women who couldn't really be defeated.

It was Dawn who heeded their silent call. She ran over to May and Misty and took her position right next to May, who found herself in the middle of the ensuing trio. Now at least they had a chance.

But no fight took place. From the beginning the three sisters were hesitant to get physical with them. Truthfully, they weren't even carrying their significantly powerful pokemon, and yet, they were so set on their objective, and so confident of their own strengths, their natural charm and softly commanding demeanor, that they didn't relent at all.

Meanwhile, Ash, Whitney and Candice had become rather invested in their confrontation, and decided to set aside their own dispute until the more numerous one was resolved. That said, neither one of the two let go of Ash.

Ash's friends showed their pokeballs, at that point, more than anything else, they welcomed a battle just for fun. Simply with that gesture the tables turned, once they realized that Misty's sisters were not carrying pokeballs with them. May, Misty and Dawn had the upper hand, it really was a terrible moment for Johanna to walk in right between them, but that's exactly what she did.

"What is the meaning of this?" She exclaimed with an angered tone.

"Nothing mom!" Dawn quickly replied. "We're just having a conversation."

"Yeah right." Johanna took a quick look around. She knew exactly what was happening. "I knew it… I just knew it. Dawn, get away from those women at once. It seems like they are on your side now, but once you defeat the other team they will become your enemies, and will try to poach Ash for themselves. Can't you see? That's the only reason they are doing this. That's why _you_ are doing this."

"They are my friends, mom, we're just joking around. And for the last time, I don't, like, Ash! Stop trying to marry me to him!"

"Don't talk to me like that. Now come here this instant." Johanna pointed at the spot right next to her and looked straight at her daughter, who shot her a firm challenging look and stood her ground. However, so did Johanna, and soon later Dawn was forced to submit to her mother and go stay right next to her.

"Sorry guys," Dawn said to Misty and May as she made her way. They understood her situation, at least partially. Moms could be quite overbearing sometimes, although in that regard Johanna had them all beat.

Since she was a child, Dawn had taken after her mother, and just like her she had become a coordinator. That was the point where Dawn felt like Johanna started interfering more and more in her decisions. In reality, Dawn still had a long way to go to become a really good performer, and she felt at least a little bit guilty because she couldn't reach Johanna's standards. It didn't help that both May and Serena, both good friends of Ash, were accomplished performers in their own right, and Johanna was well aware of that. Serena's mother was actually a famous rhyhorn racer; coincidentally, Dawn was really good at it herself. Perhaps she should've defied her mother, like Serena did, and pursue what she wanted to do, Dawn thought. Although she could never forget, that she still wasn't quite sure of what she really wanted to do with her life.

"What now mom?" Dawn attempted to call her mom out. "I've left my team outnumbered, there's just two of us and you don't have pokemon. And more importantly, you're not listening to me!"

"Ha!" Johanna laughed openly, she wasn't worried at all. "I'm not worried, at all, and you shouldn't be either. Do you seriously think I'd come here without an ace up my sleeve?"

As she said that, none other than Drayden, yet another freaking leader, this one from Unova, approached them and got right next to Johanna. Right then the tables turned once more. Suddenly Misty's sisters didn't seem like a threat at all. Suddenly Drayden had become the main enemy to defeat.

"Why are you doing this Drayden?" Misty asked him.

"I'm just here to settle this dispute," he said. In reality he was quite scared of Johanna, and had casually spoken to her about a deal pertaining to Ash himself. He himself didn't want to marry Ash, but something about his status as a champion was of extreme importance to Drayden. And he was quite scared of Johanna. "Now, if what you want is a match, I'm for you."

"That's right. Dawn, you too, you're part of our team now," Johanna said.

Dawn looked at the pokeball in her hand and felt a bit guilty. There was a lot she wanted to say, but she kept quiet about most of it.

"I'm sorry guys," she did say, to Misty and May.

"Don't worry Dawn, I guess we understand," Misty said.

"Yeah, I guess your mom just wants the best for you," May added. "Although this doesn't feel right, at all."

"Shut up May," Johanna exclaimed.

"You can't talk to me that way."

"Is that so? Then why did I just do it? Listen guys, I'm sorry," Johanna continued. "I know I can be a bit overwhelming, but it's like you said, I just want the best for my daughter, whom I love dearly. And she would never admit it, but she is in fact in love with Ash."

"No I'm not! What makes you think I am, mom?"

"I can tell, I can see you, I know you. I've known you my whole life."

"Don't try to put ideas in my brain that aren't there."

"And most of Ash's friends are probably in love with him too. And why wouldn't they be? Specially now. How about you May, do you like Ash?"

"Me? I guess I've never really thought about it."

"See! What about you Misty?"

"No, I am not in love with him! He's just my best friend."

"See mom, you're just paranoid."

"Maybe I am, but I sure have a reason to be. She's his best friend, she's known Ash the longest out of all of us. Do you really think that whoever ends up with him shouldn't be wary of her? …Now enough of this chit-chat, let's go get that boy!"

"Understood!" Drayden exclaimed, and then led the attack towards Whitney and Candice, who still had a hold of Ash, who looked like he'd had his life sucked out of him.

Misty's sisters freaked out, May and Misty felt powerless and unable to either stop the fight or save Ash. Misty's sisters quickly made an alliance with Whitney and Candice, who moved to the front, to try and fend off Drayden's, Johanna's, and a reluctant Dawn's attack. Meanwhile the sisters held on to Ash, and watched over him carefully.

Things had quickly escalated after just a few days, and it was all because Ash had gone back to his home town as a champion. He cared for none of it, in fact, if he had known that he'd have to deal with such a hassle, he probably would've lost the finals on purpose. Although, perhaps he only felt that way because of the effect that the newly-obtained fame and fortune had had on Pikachu, which had made him drift away, and left Ash very alone, and without the energies to continue. What he didn't know, however, was that there were not one, but a few plans harboring, all of them with the intent of releasing him from that hectic and celebratory prison.


	4. Chapter 4

4

The party raged on at full force. A big white tent had been set up right in the middle of it, and most of the party-goers had gleefully settled below it. It was actually really hot in there, as the sun had heated up the white plastic considerably in a matter of hours. But none of the sweaty, exhilarated faces cared, both people and pokemon just wanted to dance.

And they would do so to the rhythm of the tunes chosen by none other than Paul, Ash's rival-turned-friend from Sinnoh, who dabbled in the dj game during his free time. It was just a hobby, he said to himself at the beginning. In reality it had evolved into something that was still not lucrative by any means, nevertheless Paul kept at it for fun. He was not known by the name of dj-ressentiment, nevertheless he still called himself that during his gigs. He had his booth set up on the corner with the most shade beneath the tent, and had a large list of dark wave and hardcore house tracks ready to make the speakers roar. He was wearing pitch-black sunglasses and a giant pair of black headphones.

Every once in a while Paul would shout into a microphone to keep the crowd hyped. He'd shout things like, "Ash Ketchum is the greatest trainer alive!" and, "Isn't it great that he became champion before any of us?" and, "We're all happy for him and hope a tragedy doesn't befall him!" and the crowd would shout and go wild, failing to pick up on his sarcasm and his bitter tone hiding anger. Paul really wanted to be happy for Ash, although he didn't really consider the champion a friend. Instead, it was easier for Paul to say that Ash had earned his respect, because, well, that way Paul could feel like a person whose respect seemed valuable, and he kind of really needed that, specially after the many defeats he'd suffered at the hands of Ash. It was obvious Paul was deeply envious of Ash, but that didn't matter. He could surely distract himself with ear-piercing, throbbing music commanded by his hands. And so he blasted the sweet tunes at full volume and lost himself in them, while the flashing lights above him painted him of different colors that changed instantly with the throbbing of the beat. The people and pokemon abandoned themselves to _his_ rhythm, and then Paul felt like they were dancing just for him, like he alone could bring them exhilarating joy and happiness from his dj booth. And, perhaps, that was much better than winning the league. At that point, he felt like those people could dance forever, and he, like them, could remain ignorant of the world around him for as long.

Paul was successful, up until he saw how Ash Ketchum seemingly walked into the tent with his hands raised and pumping upwards. The success seemed to have gone to his head, it would be the start of his downfall at least. Paul forced himself to stop thinking about it and grabbed his microphone.

"Ash Ketchum in the house!" he shouted. Everyone went wild, it was as if their souls had been unleashed from their bodies, and had come out in the form of insane, exhilarating screams. "Let's hope for his safety and overall well-being!"

Paul ostensibly saw how Ash was immediately swarmed by a pack of scantily clothed girls. He was wearing very old clothes, Paul didn't know it was actually the ensemble that Ash Ketchum used to wear when he first started his journey: jeans, black undershirt, blue and white top, and green finger-less gloves, both of which looked very worn out, even from afar. Suddenly one of the flirty girls from his entourage took off one of his gloves, and subsequently put it on her hand in a playful manner.

"I'm wearing the gloves of the champion," this intrepid girl said. Afterwards he grabbed her naked fingers and kissed them, causing the whole group to gush around him loudly and with vigorous abandon.

"I've never kissed a champion," said another one of the girls.

"Is that so?" he replied. "Well, we can fix that right now." And then he pointed to his cheek with his glove-less hand. The girl, who was a bit taller than him, kissed him effusively for a few seconds, with sound too, a soft moaning sound which lasted for the entirety of the kiss, which ended with a committed clapping sound.

"Anyone else?" he asked to his group. The eager girls made a line and started kissing him one by one.

Just a few minutes later this person wearing Ash's old clothes got tired of the overwhelming noise, and came out of the tent with a considerable group of admirers of all shapes and sizes following enthusiastically behind him. The crowd that he had gathered had such an effect on the premises that it didn't take long for May to notice, and she went to take a closer look with a defeated air. She didn't actually know who the person wearing Ash's clothes was—it was in fact Ritchie—but she figured out exactly what he was doing as well as the fact that he was able to get away with it because he looked just like Ash, with a lighter hair color. She moved closer and listened.

"So, after I won," Ritchie, masquerading as Ash, pompously said to his entourage, "that's right, the league. Anyway, after I won the league and became champion for the tenth time, I went to Alola and had brunch with the other champions. Lance was there, with his crazy hairdo, his heavy cape and his extravagant outfit, horribly ill-fitted for the tropical weather of Alola. You know he's having trouble with his dragons, can't get them to evolve or something like that. Poor guy. I said to him, I said, 'look baby, the future is here, whether you like it or not. And if you want to stay ahead of the curve, then you're going to have make some changes to your lineup. You heard me, you're gonna have to get rid of some of your little dragons and get yourself something that still works in the game' is what I said to the poor guy. You should've seen his face when I told him this, he was really sad. But that's how it is, and I was just giving him the best possible advice I could give."

May was thoroughly disgusted by Ritchie's shameless attitude. Then again, she thought right then, he might end up being useful. Because Drayden, along with Candice and Whitney, and everyone else, were still at it, and the real Ash was right in the middle of it feeling dismally sad. Something had to be done, and she wasn't the only one thinking this way.

Two people who weren't necessarily thinking about Ash at that particular moment, however, were Trip and Lana, as they walked side by side in complete silence. In fact, the silence around them was so concrete, because it had lasted for an uncomfortably long period of time, which stretched for as far as they had been walking, that it could be felt physically around them. And the silence was heavy and asphyxiating, and the lung-oppressing feeling was aggravated by the freshly-introduced acquaintances sensing each other's bodies so close to their own, so the immobilizing silence itself prevented them from speaking.

And so, all Trip could do right about then was to think, and think and keep thinking, and all he could think about right about then was her, walking right next to him, wearing an ensemble which seemed to have been specifically designed for the supernatural fusion of a mellow fisherman and a sweet and delicate sailor, rendered in white and blue; as such, it suited her nicely, and it was perhaps because of that that Trip couldn't stop thinking about Lana. She was wearing sandals, and seeing as Trip was already looking down as he walked, he didn't have to direct his eyes at her to have a full view of her feet. Yes, he felt very weird, and his current state of mind did lead him to think that he could be one of those people, the kind of which there seemed to be a lot and yet he'd never met a single one of them. One of those people who seemed to have a… let's say, peculiar obsession with a specific body part. But such notion was so easy to dismiss. Lana was softly charismatic, and quite attractive, although that wasn't the first thing people would notice about her. She possessed an unremarkable kind of lucid beauty that could easily go unnoticed. But Trip had noticed it, she was beautiful, so he was attracted to her, that was all. There was no need to reach conclusions which would've made him quite upset. This brought Trip a bit of peace of mind, as they arrived at the above-ground pool which had been set up by Scott. It had numerous signs advertising the Battle Frontier, showcasing it supposed greatness and such.

"Thanks for walking me and Sandy all the way here," Lana said, bravely freeing them both from the silence. "It's time you finally got rid of us, we've bothered you enough."

Trip silently cursed to himself. He had done it again. Once again he had seemed outwardly cold and uninviting when he didn't meant to, and it was all because of a stupid train of thought that didn't deserve a single moment of consideration from him. He tried to reply, stumbling on his words abundantly, until he blurted out a resounding negative.

"That's not it at all. It's just, my face. And people say I have low energy," he said, semi-coherently.

"It's okay," Lana replied.

"No it's not, I'm sorry, I didn't meant to seem that way. It was a nice walk…"

"It was, sure it was."

Both of them stood there quietly unsure of what to do. Thankfully, for the two of them, and the oblivious eevee next to them, the awkwardness had been somehow nullified. Simply put, they didn't want to separate, even if they couldn't process this consciously. Lana looked at the tacky and bloated pool filled with people, who seemed like they were running on autopilot mode and wouldn't ever stop, she realized, if it weren't for Trip and Sandy, she'd be suffering greatly.

"Celebrating is nice and all," she said, "but, how can you keep doing anything, without stopping to think about what you're doing every once in a while?"

Trip turned his head to look at Lana, as she stared quietly at the pool, thoroughly disinterested in what the people inside were doing—mostly having very loud conversations while holding drinks in their hands, all in a very energetic manner. What she said barely made sense to him, and yet Trip couldn't remember when was the last time he'd felt so connected to another person.

Max, May's little brother, appeared out of nowhere next to the serene couple, with his little hands on his little hips, and a very serious expression on his face; he didn't say anything. A few seconds later he identified a long tree branch on the ground, crouched down, grabbed it, and started drawing a picture with it on the dirt. Soon it became noticeable that he was drawing Iris's face, taking a few artistic liberties, and certainly bold choices in the form of large devil horns, ridiculously bulging eyes, and a serpentine tongue out. Max actually got really into his drawing, and got so invested in the flow of the moment, as he finished the final details of her face on the dirt, that he failed to notice none other than Iris staring at him from above, with an expressionless face, and eyes from which anger effortlessly emanated. Her presence was so heavy Max, completely invested in his drawing, managed to notice her after a while. He looked up, saw Iris staring at him, paused for a few seconds, and promptly went back to his drawing without a care in the world, yes, ignoring Iris completely.

"Did you hear?" Iris said. "A bunch of people are fighting and whoever wins gets to marry Ash."

"Well what are you waiting for? Aren't you going to take part in that fight?" Max replied with a conceited tone as he stood up, with his eyes closed. "It's the best chance you'll have to get married, and that's considering you'll probably lose really quickly, since you don't know how to train your pokemon properly."

Max stopped talking, and his speech was enough to detonate Iris who, right on that moment, as she looked at the conceited kid with his eyes closed behind glasses and his hands on hips, sought the most effective way to annoy him, pinpointed his wacky drawing of her with eager eyes, and promptly gave it a good stir with her foot before Max could stop her. And Max did try to stop her, he knew full well she'd try to mess up his mocking drawing of her, sadly, for him, kind of, he was simply not fast enough to stop her. Having seen his masterpiece mercilessly destroyed before his eyes, Max found himself overcome with a rage that made his tiny hands into kid fists, and in that instant he chose to forgo the rule which his own mom had inculcated in him since he was a child, okay, a toddler—'do not punch girls'—and he went for her as he let out an angry battle-cry.

At this clear sign of aggression from Max Axew reacted and ran at his trainer. The little dragon, instantly in fight-or-flight mode, found itself more than willing to hurt Max—maybe because of what had happened earlier between the two, which involved a solid block of protein trying to be shoved down his reluctant mouth. Regardless, neither of them ended up hurting the other, as Max stopped well before his knuckles could make contact with anyone. He was outnumbered, and was at least smart enough to know it wasn't a good idea to go hand to hand with a pokemon, regardless of how small that pokemon happened to be.

He was still quite mad, however.

"Do you know how hard I worked on that drawing?" the kid shouted at Iris.

"That drawing of me, which you did just to mock me?" Iris replied serenely.

"Yes! I thought it was really good, I was going to take a picture of it!"

"Oh, really? What a shame."

Max grunted angrily, he put his fist in front of his face. "You'll pay for this!"

"Bring it on kid," Iris said with confidence. "You know what, let's solve this once and for all. Call your pokemon out."

Max hesitated, his eyes opened wide. Of course he didn't want to seem weak; he wanted to teach Iris a lesson. The problem was, he still hadn't gotten his first pokemon.

"What is it?" Iris said, she saw right through him. "Don't tell me you don't have a pokemon."

"Of course I have one. It's just, I don't have it with me… I left it in Hoenn taking care of an orphanage."

"Yeah right, just admit it."

"Never! You know what, I don't even need to have my own pokemon, which I really have just not here, to beat you, because I can use one of Ash's many pokemon instead."

"You think you can just use them without permission? Did you even ask him?"

"No, but I don't have to, because he's my friend, which means that all of his pokemon are officially my friends too, which means I can use them whenever I want in an official battle."

"Who told you that?"

"Nobody had to, cause it's official. You'll see!" he blurted out angrily.

Max ran to Samuel Oak's pokemon sanctuary and farm, which was located nearby, and Iris ran after him also fueled by anger. Even though he wouldn't ever admit it Max was very anxious and even a bit scared. He really didn't want to lose against Iris, and as things were now he'd lose by default simply for not having a pokemon. As he ran, he focused really hard on coming up with a brilliant plan that would give him the upper hand, luckily for him—he thought—he still had the element of surprise. And as he reached Oak's giant stable, where all of Ash's pokemon were staying, the illusion of an idea arrived to him in his frantic state, and even though he was sweating and running short of breath by the time he got there, he couldn't help but smile almost mischievously; right then it seemed his victory was guaranteed—in his mind. Max quickly identified the trace of a creature, a blue little ball crouched down near a bush, probably eating some berries. He was ready to surprise Iris, he was going to beat her. He ran towards the ball and discovered it was none other than Ash's squirtle, and the blue little ball he saw was actually his head, and he was in fact eating some berries. Max smiled with the eyes of a madman drenched in sweat, he grabbed Squirtle by his shell, lifted him above his head, and with both hands threw him right at where he thought Iris was at the moment.

Brock, Ash's friend, Pewter City Gym Leader, was there at the moment. Brock has a plan, he knew exactly what was happening with Ash, and he knew the party needed to be stopped. And more importantly, he knew how to solve both problems; there was an easy answer. But then his plan was ruined.

"This is how you defeat your enemies!" Max screamed. And Squirtle unwillingly flew away like a projectile, with his eyes closed by fear and his open mouth shouting, also from the fear. Max's brilliant plan failed miserably, Squirtle missed Iris entirely, however she was able to observe rather comfortably as Squirtle landed on a rock and after a violent ricochet was shot at even more speed right at none other than Brock, and Squirtle's shell hit the poor leader right on the side of the head, making a loud, hollow noise at contact, after which both pokemon and man went down and to sleep on the ground.

Iris was at first too shocked to react, but she did so pretty quickly afterwards, with anger.

"Was that directed at me? Are you kidding me? I will end you!"

She hurried to find another one of Ash's pokemon, it didn't matter which one it was, nor how heavy it happened to be, she'd have her revenge. She eyed one quickly and she didn't hesitate. Pignite was resting pleasurably on the ground, sporting an overjoyed smile, the kind of which could only be achieved after a good period of true relaxation. Iris arrived right next to him, knelt down on one leg and essentially gave the orange pokemon a hug, encompassing his plump belly whole with the reach of her arms. She prepared to lift him, she did a few breath exercises, quick breath in, quick breath out, three times, then with a great effort and a rousing shout she did lift Pignite over her head, and then with another great effort and rousing shout she threw him at Max. However, Pignite happened to be simply too heavy and too far away to hit right where Iris wanted it to, and so the poor pignite went and hit the ground really hard, so hard it took all the air right out of his lungs, after his considerable gullet hit the hard ground beneath the green grass, and the impact was so staggering it made the poor fire type lose control of his body for a moment, making the air come out of his mouth and nose as a powerful fireball which in a second flew out of his mouth and right at a tree, which immediately caught on fire, which instantly spread through the scenery and to the barn, which was at once set ablaze. Suddenly a lot of things were on fire.

Scared speechless, and feeling the sudden rise in temperature which immediately made them sweat, Iris and Max ran to Brock, turned him over and tried to wake him up. He didn't respond to worried shouts, so they resorted to shake him violently by the shoulders until he came back to his senses, which he did only after a few forceful stirs which he could not only feel, but also hear clearly inside of his skull.

Once awake Brock stood up and pushed their hands away, then grabbed his head which was still in pain.

"I can't believe it! You two again! Why do you want to kill me?" Brock exclaimed with an exasperated tone. And at that point who could blame the poor guy.

"No, Brock, you've got it all wrong!" Max and Iris replied in unison.

And their joint negative was loud enough to awaken Squirtle from his Max-inflicted slumber. He stood up angrily and with his head freshly swollen.

"Squirtle! Right on time, we need to put the fire out quickly," Brock ordered. Squirtle shook his head—it hurt—and then gathered its crew of squirtles. Meanwhile Brock bolted to gather the rest of Ash's water pokemon, and Iris and Max followed after him, apologizing profusely as they walked.

"There's no time for that!" Brock said to shut them up. Obviously there were more important tasks at hand, but truthfully he was so annoyed by the pair that he just didn't want to hear their voices.

The fire spread rapidly and through the rest of the buildings nearby. The barn's roof was fully ablaze, and of course there were pokemon inside. Neither Iris nor Max had ever been so scared in their lives as they were then.

All the water pokemon organized neatly and with disciplined hurry. Oshawott, Buizel, Kingler, Totodile and Corphish, all seasoned and alert, joined the squirtle crew and together they slowly quelled the fire with water projectiles shot out of their mouths.

"Man, thank goodness the squirtle crew was here. At least we were able to resolve this," Max said with relief. Brock didn't take his tone kindly.

"What are you talking about? I called them here!" he said angrily. "They were going to help me putting out the giant bonfire that's getting out of control, and then we'd storm the ongoing battle and save Ash. But you had to come here and ruin everything, and fixing the mess you've made will take us all day."

"Hey, don't look at me," Max said, once more with his conceited air. "This was all Iris's fault."

Iris focused solely on Max, she was angry at him and nothing else mattered. "Why you little!"

"Shut up, the two of you!" Brock stopped them cold. "Couldn't you stop for even a second to consider the consequences of what you've done? Now who's going to save Ash?"

Neither one from the guilty pair answered. Brock's words echoed through the field, as ash and steam slowly raised to the sky.

Meanwhile Trip and Lana, still staring silently at the pool, were not worried about Ash all. They weren't even aware of what was going on with him. After some nice silence they went over to the edge of the pool and stared at the clear water, which was still and peaceful for a transient second. Trip looked at his reflection, he focused on his eyes, then on his smile. Honestly, he liked the way he looked. He had worked hard to look like he hadn't worked hard on his appearance. Lana was right next to him, although right on that second he didn't seem to notice her. Sure, he was handsome, she thought; he was rather nice too, perhaps even thoughtful. However, and regardless of what Trip said, or even what he thought about himself, Lana couldn't help but think that he was a just a bit too much into himself.

All of the sudden a third reflection appeared next to theirs on the water, it was Gary's. When she saw him, Lana turned to him a bit startled. Gary was standing right next to her, sporting a smile rather similar to Trip's on his face; too similar, Lana thought right then.

"Hey girl, are you hungry?" Gary asked with suave style, which could've easily been taken as tacky, perhaps rightfully so. "How about some chips, or some donuts? I know a good place, right between the trash cans and the porta-potties."

"I just ate," Lana muttered half-consciously. The situation in which she suddenly found herself was something completely new to her, and so she had no idea about how to react properly to it. Therefore, she could do nothing else but act according to her immediate responses.

"Is that so, you've eaten already; that's good, we don't want you getting malnourished or anything like that," Gary replied. "Then how about some soft drinks, Lana? Even if you're not thirsty right now, with this heat, you could always use some replenishment. Come on it'll take no time, and we can bring some for Trip and Sandi—that's right, I know what your pokemon is called, in fact it's high up in my list of faves."

Lana touched her chin with her index finger and tried to think, but the rush of the moment didn't let her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my bad," Gary said, after getting another feel at the scene. "Were you guys doing something together? I didn't mean to interrupt. Are you two on a date?"

"No." Trip was quick to respond.

"Neat, so there's no issue, right Lana?"

"Um… I guess not," she finally said.

"Okay, let's go."

Gary put her arm around Lana and led her away from the pool.

"Do you mind if we stop for some chips along the way?" Gary added as they walked.

"No at all."

"Great, there are some nice tables set up nearby, we could hang out for a while." Gary kept talking as they moved farther and farther away from the pool. Meanwhile Trip and Sandy stayed there and tried to recapitulate on what had just happened.

On their way to their date—at least according to what Gary had planned—Gary and Lana passed near an open field which had become a battlefield, where Drayden and his haxorus, the pokemon just as imposing as the man, fought intensely against Whitney and her miltank, with Candice and her sneasel standing by ready to be tagged in. Drayden clearly had the upper hand from the beginning, and this allowed Johanna and Dawn to sneak closer to the top of a hill close by, where Misty's sisters were holding on to Ash. He was eating a piece of cake with a very uninspired air to him, while sitting on a red cloth, not really aware of the fact that he had basically been abducted.

Johanna, along with her reluctant daughter, got through to Ash. However before they could speak to him Lily, Daisy and Violet blocked their way.

"Let Ash go!" Johanna exclaimed. "You can't keep a person like this."

"Speak for yourself," Lily replied, not giving up one inch but instead fearlessly challenging her. "We're onto you and your tricks Johanna."

Candice approached mother and daughter menacingly from behind, with her sneasel mischievously following along, ready to cause trouble. Dawn turned around and stepped forward, and called her mamoswine out. It was obvious a second match would start.

Misty arrived there too, with a knowing smile on her face. She immediately went for her sisters, who were already arguing with the equally pokemon-less Johanna. And so a big argument ensued, perhaps just as—if not more—intense as either of the two matches which were enfolding concurrently. They were all civil enough to think that it wouldn't have to come to blows, that said, just a few shouts later both Johanna and the sisters were ready to rip the skin off of one another. The reason for all the fighting didn't matter, not anymore—Ash didn't matter—and neither did the consequences. They wanted to hurt each other because they were suddenly angry at each other, and that was that.

All of the sudden Violet noticed a very disorienting peculiarity.

"Hold on! Everyone! There's two of them!" she shouted. And at first nobody really paid attention to her, in fact Johanna thought she was just trying to distract them. But then they all looked at Ash, and realized there were in fact two of him. And both of them were eating cake with the same sullen expression on their faces.

Actually one of them was just pretending to be Ash, and was observing each and every one of the real Ash's movements and imitating them instantly. It's not like the real Ash was making a lot of sudden moves or anything, so superficially they did look pretty much identical. So out of nowhere Ash seemed to have multiplied. Opponents from both sides momentarily stopped their argument and went to check on him—on them. While Candice had a vicious battle with Dawn and Whitney did the same with Drayden, the rest of them stared at the two Ash like live specimens right after an experiment had been conducted on them. Both of them had the red cap, the short frame, the black hair. And the most important question was of course, which one was the real one?

The women asked that question out loud and in unison, then they all fell silent. Most of them didn't know what to do. Of course, Misty knew exactly what was going on, and even if she hadn't known it was all part of May's impromptu plan, she still could've identified the real Ash in less than a full second. It was obvious which one of the two cake-eating sentimentaloids was the real Ash Ketchum, and which one was Ritchie with his hair dyed black, merely imitating the original. The two ongoing battles stopped for a moment, Dawn took notice of the real Ash immediately; however, no one else seemed to notice the difference. They were all keen on keeping Ash for themselves, for one reason or another, but the truth was that neither Johanna, nor Drayden, nor Candice nor Whitney, nor any of the sisters, really knew Ash, nor had they granted him more than a passing, uninterested glance whenever they'd had the chance to interact with him. It was very good proof of how they didn't really care for him as a person. And yet, even after such a mystical happening, both sides were dead set on having the real Ash Ketchum to keep for themselves.

"Problem solved," Daisy said, attempting to take advantage of the confusion. "We don't have to fight anymore, there's two of them."

"Hold on a second, seriously?" Johanna quickly replied. "And don't try anything, I'm looking at you. Do you even know which one is the real one?

"Not at the moment, but that doesn't really matter anymore does it. The two of them look the same, no one's going to notice the difference, so don't worry, we'll take them both and decide which one we want to keep, and we'll hand over the other one to you as soon as possible."

"Yeah, we're going to pass on that one," Johanna said. "And I think it's right for us to be insulted, if you think such a hurried tactic would work."

"And why wouldn't it work on you? You'll get the Ash that you seem to want so much for no reason. And if you want to get him married to your daughter, well you can do just that."

"Be careful young lady, you don't want to mess with me."

"Oh, believe me, I don't want to," Daisy said, smiling, "nevertheless, here you are, and I'm not going anywhere."

"…Drayden," Johanna said, staring right at Daisy.

"Yes ma'am."

"Get ready."

Drayden nodded earnestly, and his haxorus moved in front of him after the gesture. Daisy shot a knowing look at Candice and Whitney, they immediately understood with a somber air what she meant. The two of them went to face Drayden along with their pokemon.

"And you too Dawn… Dawn?" Johanna said. Then she shouted her daughter's name, however Dawn seemed to have vanished all of the sudden. It was disconcerting for everyone, she could've been inconspicuously swallowed by the earth for all they knew. And that wasn't all of it. Collectively, members from the two sides turned their heads to the red cloth on the ground, and effectively ascertained what they were all suddenly thinking, only one Ash was there.

Daisy immediately turned to Johanna intending to call her out, because, seeing as Dawn was gone too, well it was clear that they had taken advantage of the distraction to sneak away with the boon. However, after looking at her, and seeing how astonished and utterly confused Johanna was by the proceedings, Daisy realized she couldn't have planned that, and was in fact just as clueless as her. Very quickly Daisy got anxious and desperate, and so did her two sisters as well as everyone else still there, all of them freshly made fools. There was no time to think, they had to react in any way that came to them, from anywhere. The sisters quickly headed for the remaining Ash, who stopped his pleasantly eating of the cake for two seconds when he felt a heavy stare set on him. As you might have guessed, this lingering Ash wasn't the real one but merely Ritchie, whose hair had become irreparably blackened and stiff, from the abruptly performed dye job that made him look just like Ash Ketchum.

Accurately predicting danger, Ritchie stood up, and ran away. He didn't even want to be there, he had been forced to by May, and it was all because he had been pretending to be Ash Ketchum to get preferential treatment and kisses and what not. And sure, during his time masquerading as a League Champion, he had deceived a bunch of people, and most people would've probably thought he had the pursuit—the hunt—well deserved. But it wasn't like that was really his fault. I mean, he never asked to look like Ash, to be confused with him and compared to him, mercilessly, unfavorably, and on countless occasions. Ritchie felt like he had earned himself a bit of fun at the expense of fanatic party-goers who wanted to hang out with the champion. But, he thought, as Johanna and the sisters and the rest chased after him, as he was just a regular trainer, destined to have an ordinary existence, he had to pay for trying to get some of the extraordinary, even if it was just for a little bit. He accepted his comeuppance as he ran, and kept running, and as he ran he felt his hair becoming heavier, and hardened, and more uncomfortable on his head by the passing second.

The real Ash Ketchum watched the chase from afar, once again on top of the red cloth next to Dawn, who had actually saved him. She had seen the perfect moment: as the women kept arguing with attention-demanding bravado, she sneaked to Ash and grabbed him by the arm, and took him with her far and out of sight, until the crowd went away to chase the decoy. Misty and May then appeared beside them, pleased and almost proud because the plan had worked fine. Of course Ash was still sad, Pikachu was still enjoying the party too much away from him, and he missed his best friend like never before, but at least now Ash would have time to rest, away from all the noise and the drama, perhaps beneath the shade of a nice tree, all thanks to his dear friends.

None of them were aware of Palermo's presence. She was observing the four of them clearly from a safe distance, from behind her red-framed sunglasses, while sporting a particularly photogenic smile on her face. Seeing the champion with those three girls pleased her, it worked well with her own plan, which was already in motion.

Scott, the wacky-shirt-wearing battle-frontier owner, appeared next to her with a heavy countenance upon him; too serious. His eyes, just like Palermo's, were hidden behind shades.

"So you're the one pulling some strings around you," he said to her. "I'll cut straight to the chase, I'm very keen on keeping Ash in Kanto, and I won't take kindly to opposition."

"Fine by me, all I want is for him to stay as far away from Kalos as possible," Palermo replied casually, without looking at Scott. "I guess Kanto will do."

Scott smiled. "What do you have in mind?" he asked her.

Palermo smiled.


	5. Chapter 5

5

He lost them on the dance-floor: Ritchie. Struggling to keep his head on its place, feeling the density of the hair dye consummating with his follicles, he wondered what terrible deed he had committed that had led him to that point. As throbbing music and flashing lights flooded his senses as well as those of his pursuers—the three sisters and a rather overbearing mother—Ritchie focused on running, and at the same time through his mind flashed fleeting images of his immediate past.

His crime had been only that he looked eerily similar to the local hero Ash Ketchum, and perhaps also that he had pretended to be him to get free stuff, as well as food, and praise, and kisses from myriads of opportunistic girls who wanted to kiss the League Champion, but, other than that, he also had taken out a loan in Ash's name, but other than that, nothing.

So Ritchie ran for a long time, and ultimately he managed to lose Johanna and Misty's sisters. He hid himself effectively by crouching down near a bush, quite far away from the dance-floor and the rest of the party. There he took off Ash's old jacket and cap, and when he felt enough time had passed, he went looking for May. He found her right outside Ash's front door and went to confront her, however he only managed to release incoherent ramblings once he had her in front of him.

"Be quiet Ritchie," May replied without looking at him. "Or people will find out Ash is sleeping in his room." As she said this, she looked at her nails with her chin up, and a carefree flair in her eyes.

"I don't care about Ash right now. What did you put in my hair?"

"Take it easy. It's just Professor Sycamore's hair dye, so you have nothing to worry about. Also, don't tell anyone he dyes his hair please. I promised not to tell anyone when he let me borrow it, but I guess telling you is fine, after what happened."

"After you ruined my hair! Seriously, touch it."

May tried to shrug off Ritchie's last remark, but then she saw that he was dead serious, so she went to feel his hair with her palm. It didn't take long for her to realize that his protests were well founded. Basically, his hair had turned into two black icicles that burst out of the sides of his head, one at each side of course, both of them definitely heavy, hard, and probably dangerous too. May felt slightly bad, but then she remembered what Ritchie was doing before she forced him to impersonate Ash. It seemed he had obtained a ridiculously appropriate punishment; nevertheless, May was nice enough to fetch Professor Sycamore to ask him about it.

"So, professor, would you please tell Ritchie here that there's nothing wrong with his hair?" May asked calmly with her palm raised and her eyes closed. At that point the three of them were by Ash's front door, where it was nice and quiet for a change. Luckily those who were looking for Ash didn't even know where his house was.

"Of course there's nothing wrong with it, just look at my hair," the professor answered. Then he moved his head around a little bit, and his long black hair first glistened, seemingly at command, with the rays from the sun, then his long locks swayed gracefully from side to side following the rocking motion of his head an elegant second behind, which denoted volume.

"Also, don't tell anyone I dye my hair please. My natural color is just a shade away from perfection."

"Okay fine. I won't tell anyone, but this can't be normal, instead of a dye it feels like cement which, by the way, has become completely dry and hard on top of my skull."

"Have you ever dyed your hair before? If not, then there you go. Of course it's going to feel weird the first time you do it. That's just part of the process, after all, you don't get to looking like this without trying. I do what I can, and then some. Now, depending of how light your natural hair was, you might have to apply another layer of dye once that one settles. Thankfully I'm a natural brunette so I didn't have to go through so much hassle…" The professor started searching for something in the pockets of his white summer jacket. "…Here, I'll tell you which brand I use." After feeling what was inside his pocket, the professor's eyes opened wide, and his face changed immediately from calm and collected to worried and confused. "…Oh dear."

"What? What is it? Please tell me, now!" Ritchie exclaimed, suddenly quite angry. It was like he had a reason to be so.

"It seems there was a mishap with the bottle I handed you." Sycamore took out a small flask filled with pitch-black fluid, which looked visibly thick. "Don't get mad: I gave you my shoe polish instead of my hair dye."

Ritchie said nothing, in fact he was physically unable to speak, chiefly from how overcome with rage he was all of the sudden. Meanwhile Sycamore kept speaking, angering Ritchie even more with every word he uttered.

"…But don't worry, it isn't that bad I assume. Actually, maybe, it will give you a very greasy, I mean, retro look. And you know how retro looks are very much in right now, I think. Anyway, as it isn't hair dye it'll probably fall off soon on its own. It'll fall off certainly every time you touch your hair, or every time your hair touches any surface, and maybe also your hair will fall off, but, that would mean the problem is solved, as the dye would also fall off, technically. And your hair will grow again anyway maybe… So you literally have nothing to worry about."

"Yeah," Ritchie replied with arduous reticence, "I beg to differ." He was fuming, his debt to Ash was most certainly paid, at least symbolically speaking, and now it was he who had shoe polish on his hair. He turned to May, intending to righteously let out his anger on her, and to ask her about how they would proceed. However May wasn't there anymore; he looked all around for her, but it seemed like she had never existed.

What ensued was a moment during which his rage couldn't be properly communicated. He jumped and growled for a while, with his eyes closed and his fists clenched tightly.

Meanwhile, Trip was sitting quite near the angry guy with shoe polish on his hair. Though as they didn't know each other no verbal exchange of any kind was made; not even their eyes clashed once. Ritchie was too angry to care about some random hunk-looking dude sitting on the ground, resting his back on the wall of Ash's house. And Trip wanted to save himself from any interaction with the neurotic fellow who was walking angrily all around, although it wasn't just that, because at the same time his frame of mind just wasn't very welcoming. What had happened: while he was enjoying Lana's silent company, Gary had arrived, and had asked if the two of them, Lana and Trip, were on a date. If only he had said yes, Trip wished faintly. Instead he answered 'no' very quickly, as ordered by his sense of embarrassment. And yet, in a way, his rushed answer seemed appropriate to him, even after the fact. Because Trip had an image to maintain, and even if he didn't like to admit it, Trip really cared about his image, perhaps a little bit too much. At least it was his image and not someone else's, and he could do whatever he wanted with his image after all. But then, there it was again, he was being too… arrogant, or perhaps too selfish. No, who are we kidding, Trip was just being stupid, and he knew it. He liked Lana. Yes, he had messed up, but at the very least he still had Sandy there with him. The little normal pokemon was licking the tip of his tennis shoes; suddenly it felt like raining would fit the scene. Suddenly there was a moment where Trip felt like he had a decision to make, and it depended of how mature he fancied himself to be.

At the same time Trip also felt that whatever decision he could make at that moment would be a rather unpleasant one. Besides, who gets to decide what it means to be immature anyway? It's not like it's set in stone. Furthermore, right about then, there was a particularly delicious scent in the air, and both Trip and Sandy couldn't help but forget whatever unpleasant thoughts on which they were dwelling, and be led towards the scent.

After a quick search, which involved Trip and Sandy almost floating as the enticing smell caressed their noses and led them towards it, they found the source of the delightful aroma. However, a crowd was gathered around the obvious target, in a way that didn't allow them to see anything clearly. And seeing that the number of people there was discouraging enough, and that neither of their bellies was empty enough to be fully enticed by the smell, neither of the two found enough temptation to barge in through the crowd and investigate further.

What they didn't know, was that a table full of sweets of many different delicious colors had been set up, by none other than the tireless Serena. But this time it was not only her behind the counter. She was indeed accompanied by Braixen and Pancham, although this was not out of the ordinary. In her triumphant return to accomplish her objective she was aided by Samuel Oak, to her right, as well as the machine that he had just finished devising, to his right. It was a large machine, twice as tall as its creator, probably four times as wide, and this taking into account that the professor was sort of plump. It was wholly colored of a shiny chrome which was in fact stainless steel. It looked sort of like a triple-sized dryer, except that on the circular glass on the middle, instead of clothes spinning around, there was a very powerful oven which poured small multi-colored cakes into the table at a very fast pace; in fact, at the same pace the insatiable crowd ate the cakes. Next to the extremely efficient machine, Oak, Serena, and her pokemon, all nodded gladly with their eyes closed and their arms crossed.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm, good job," said Oak. "Nothing that a bit of experimental science can't solve."

Oak then put a pause to his celebratory nodding and opened his eyes, if only to give his baking machine and its process a long look. The myriads of cakes effortlessly coming out of it looked simply irresistible, and so he grabbed for himself a pink one and bit into it, ascertaining that his and Serena's joint creation tasted supernaturally delicious.

"We really did it," Oak heard. He was relishing the taste of the pink frosting with his eyes closed once more. He opened them and looked at Serena, who by then had contemplated his enjoyment for a while.

"We did indeed, you should feel very proud Serena."

"You as well professor, none of this would've been possible without your expertise."

"Meh, I merely accelerated the process, it has been all thanks to your recipe. Do you think these mindless mouths would be enjoying these sweets as they are now if they didn't taste this delicious? I don't think so."

"Well, thank you, but you're being way too modest. Much credit is due for your feat. Speaking of which, how in the world did you manage to create a machine that produces sweets this fast?"

"Well, to tell you the truth…" Oak began a long speech. "I had been working for quite a while on a method for effortless mass production without the need of resources. This investigation of mine aimed to find the most efficient way to feed the many pokemon on sanctuaries like the one I have here in my laboratory. Peculiarly, the best findings came from the pokemon's structures themselves. You see, there are pokemon, not necessarily plant types, though predominantly this is the case, anyway, there are pokemon whose molecular structure is significantly similar to plants, more specifically, edible plants, and fruits, and berries. That's right, pokemon aren't that different from berries, structurally speaking. In fact, come to think of it, there may come a day when we find out that berries are merely a yet-unclassified type of pokemon. But anyway, that's not the point. Also, I feel like I'm making this too long, I'll attempt to simplify it for the sake of clarity, both yours and my own. With the right methods, pokemon can reproduce at much faster rates than berries, and their structures, because of their propensity to be radically redistributed, because of their ability to evolve, their structures are much more malleable, ergo, if pokemon were food, we could create all kinds of food at an extraordinarily quick rate. But fear not, as pokemon aren't food, and berries aren't pokemon, although each of their molecular structures without the molecules is not the thing in itself, therefore, if we could use the molecular mappings to create synthetic molecules which could be dealt with nearly absolute will, and let me clarify, we can do such thing, therefore, we can use pokemon dna to clone food."

Serena was thoroughly befuddled. Her face showed utter confusion instead. "So, wait, what? Are the cakes made of pokemon? Because that's not my recipe!"

"No, not at all. Although the confusion is understandable. It's only the molecular mapping that we use to reconfigure the molecules which still have to be gathered. Let me think about an easier way to say it. Hmm, hmm: you take the ingredients necessary for the cakes, you put them through the machine that has the scanner with all of the molecular mappings of the pokemon dna, and that is what is used to basically clone the food. No pokemon are harmed in any way, it's just, the food has their essence on it."

"Oh, I see, I get it, I think."

"Effectively, so there is nothing to worry about, you see."

"I do see."

"Excellent, now let us continue with our nodding."

"Hmm, hmm, hmm."

This effusive nodding couldn't be witnessed by Trip because of all the people that were there mindlessly eating, although he didn't really care that about that whole thing. With that in mind, I'm sure that if he had been able to see Serena and company nodding, and being visibly proud, Trip would've thought they were pretty dumb.

He let the crowd alone and went to get a nice treat for Sandy and himself. Once he had obtained it, Scott, out of all people, managed to see Trip opening the candy bar and then lowering it to the eager pokemon's mouth. This didn't sit well with the man wearing shades, and he went over to voice his reservations.

"Hey! I can't believe that with all the food here you choose to eat some packaged sugar."

"It's not bad, I mean, it's sugar," Trip replied calmly.

"Yeah, that's what I said, it's packaged sugar. There's packaged sugar and then there's homemade sugar, and the latter is much more harder to obtain…" Scott said. Then he paused and became more serious, specifically after he lowered his head and looked directly at Sandy, who was happily enjoying half of the candy bar. "Is that the blue girl's pokemon?"

"Yes." Trip didn't even look at him when he replied with a disinterested tone. He then shared more of the candy bar with Sandy, who was only happy to get more.

Something about their interaction irked Scott in a very frustrating way. He needed put a stop to it quickly.

"Say, that's a very special pokemon you got there, and I'm not sure it should be eating that. I'll get it out of your hair quickly."

"We're fine."

"No, but I'm serious. It's for your own good." Suddenly Scott felt pretty sad. He realized he would have to use the multi-colored cakes he had with him—which he had just gotten from Serena's stand—in order to get that scene over with. "Say, have you gone over to that table over there? They are handing out very delicious cakes for free. Myriads of more people are coming to the party just for them, it's insane. You can just keep eating without end, and have I mentioned they are absolutely delightful to the palate? Would you like to try one?"

Scott then neared to Trip the cake he was holding, which did look really delicious. However, Scott's hand looked particularly greasy right about then, and the sight of it was far from tantalizing for Trip.

Trip quasi-politely refused, and for this Scott was only slightly disappointed, and suddenly felt a rush of dopamine that enlivened his spirit, and led his hand to his mouth, and then he ate the last of the cakes he was carrying with voracious abandon as well as some aggressive guttural noises. "Oh hey. I'm such an idiot, I forgot to tell you, Trip," he said still chewing, "I hope you reconsider visiting the cake stand, because I have it on good authority that the girl who's making them happens to be an admirer of yours." The rays from the sun made Scott's shades shine for just a second. "Actually, she likes you."

"What?" Trip asked. Suddenly he looked like another person from the utter confusion that changed his face. It just didn't make sense that Scott would say that; that he would blurt out such inconsequential nonsense. "Who even told you that?"

"A good authority, didn't you hear me? So yeah, her name is Serena, she's very charismatic, a splendid cook—marvelous, fantastic!—and she happens to be the winner of the Hoenn Grand Festival. She will soon be taking part in the Kalos Grand Festival, and is being couched by a very famous and successful producer and former Kalos Queen named Palermo, so you don't want to waste an opportunity like this."

"I have never even met her. Again, who told you this? What are you even doing Scott? Is this funny to you? You're just going around telling nonsense to people hoping to get some entertainment out of it? Do you think you're being clever? It's annoying man. You just want me to convince Ash to become a Frontier Brain even though it's obvious he's not interested. Did you really think you were being sneaky? You're not as smart as you think you are."

"Hey!" The man with the greasy hands couldn't believe Trip's insolence. Scott's face was completely red and he was suddenly hyperventilating. "All I want is for my Battle Frontier to be successful. Since Nolan quit to become a professional roller-coaster tester I have been looking for a new Frontier Brain, and time is running out man."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"Hey, Trip, what's your deal, why are you like this?"

"Look, it feels like you've been bothering me a lot recently."

"I don't even care. I don't even care about this and I surely don't care about you or that pokemon or that girl, or that other girl."

Scott was fuming. At the same time his belly implored him to go back to the table of sweets. It was a clear sign of addiction, and yet he couldn't care in the least. Scott left Trip and Sandy in peace and headed for the table.

On his way he stumbled upon none other than Brock, freshly hurt, and therefore abundantly bandaged, mainly on his head. He had just finished overseeing the firefighting efforts back at Oak's lab, which had ended successfully. As he was done with this, Brock intended to rest for a bit before continuing his efforts to rescue Ash, which in fact weren't necessary anymore, seeing as Ash was safe and sleeping soundly on his childhood bed. However, it was still necessary of him to focus his efforts on the bonfire and the party in general.

But then he went and bumped into the angry Scott.

"Hey Scott, is everything alright?" Brock said. He easily noticed Scott was still fuming.

"No, the plan is going horribly," Scott replied, blinded by both anger and hunger. He carelessly revealed stuff he wasn't supposed to.

"Which plan?"

"The plan to keep Ash in Kanto, and to make Serena fall in love with Trip so she forgets about Ash and goes back to Kalos to focus on her performance. That way she will leave Ash alone, and this will make it easier for him to sign the rights to his image away to local advertisers."

"What, who's behind this?"

"Well, me, sort of. But Palermo is the mastermind I guess. She wants Serena to forget about Ash so that she can focus completely on the Kalos Grand Festival that's coming up. Gary is in on it too, but Palermo is planning to double-cross him once he makes Lana fall in love with him. Oh, by the way, Trip and Lana like each other. I mean, not for long though. It's just, it jeopardizes our plans you know. Too bad, for them. But we need Trip to make Serena forget about Ash, at least that's what Palermo is hoping to happen. I guess everyone thinks Trip's handsome and so he can make it happen, you know. Anyway, in the end Palermo will get the rights to Ash's face, but she will make it so that Ash stays in Kanto so he can become a Frontier Brain like I want him to, and Gary will get nothing. I want those rights too though, and I know that if I can get complete ownership of them, I can convince Ash to stay here and become a Frontier Brain, with the promise that I'll give them back to him, which I'll do of course, eventually. I just need to find a way to double-cross Palermo without she seeing it coming. It's going to be difficult though, that woman knows what she's doing."

Brock was flabbergasted. The plan went beyond what he thought possible, something needed to be done quickly, and he had no idea of where to start, nor with whom. Scott seemed the least effective of the guilty trifecta he mentioned, which included himself, and Palermo and Gary.

The bonfire would have to wait, yes even more. Suddenly Brock's pain was gone and his senses had become sharper. Out of the three targets, Gary seemed to be the one who called to Brock's sense of justice the most. He was supposed to be with Ash's friend Lana, whom Brock knew only by name.

It didn't take long for him to find Gary, while searching through the hectic place that Ash's welcoming-back party had become. On his crusade, Brock was being followed from a sorry distance by Max and Iris, both of them shamefully quiet, and consumed with feelings of extreme guilt—which stemmed from almost burning down the stable as well as injuring Brock.

Brock hadn't asked them to follow him, in fact he didn't particularly wanted to see them right about then, still they followed close behind, not knowing what to do. After spotting his target, and before confronting him, Brock called those kids out, and then stopped them from trying to feign obliviousness. Afterwards, seeing as they didn't want to leave him without making up for all the terrible stuff they had done, he decided to use them in his attempts to solve that whole mess.

Gary was sitting at a wooden table, eating some salad accompanied by a slightly flavored fizzy water. His elbow was on top of the table, and his back was arched in such an angle only a very conceited person could achieve. He had his legs crossed, also in a very snobby way. And he was shooting what he intended to come off as a seductive look to Lana, who was sitting opposite to him. She didn't like his face right then.

"It's a whole untapped market ready to be exploited… I mean… developed," Gary said. "Extreme winter sports. I got it all lined up, it was a big effort from my part. There's a lot of logistics that needed to be taken care of, but thankfully I was able to find a very smart way to make it work. Man, thank goodness I found a great solution. It's for the champion too you know, Ash is my best friend. We're like brothers, have been since we were babies. I still remember those days right here on Pallet Town. It's funny, how we both became very successful in our own way. This venture is sort of my congratulatory gift for him, cause I have started a few businesses already you know."

"Like what?" Lana asked earnestly.

"Oh you know…" Gary felt blindsided. He mostly had no idea of what to say, only that he was going to have to talk his way out of that corner by saying stuff that was decidedly fabricated, because he hadn't started any business; although, to some extent, he genuinely believed what he was about to say. "Some companies that are in turnaround right now." He had no companies to speak of, nor had he ever worked for one, not really. "As well as a cheer-leading business that I started when I was very young. So, what do you say Lana, have you been enchanted by my charm already?"

"What's that?" Lana was, more than anything, amused by his question.

"Don't worry," Gary continued, hopelessly confident of himself, in a way that was so overwhelming it was, frankly, kind of endearing. "I don't mean to embarrass you. Though I am perfectly aware of the effect I can have on, you know, gals."

Lana couldn't help but let out a thoroughly enjoyed chuckle, and for this Gary was glad. Because even though in a way he was aware that Lana thought he was a fool, she was also, at the very least, entertained by him, and Gary thought of that as his way in. Of course he also thought he was always really funny.

He was so focused on himself that he couldn't notice how Lana's smile fully disappeared, this when she remembered her pokemon. Truthfully she wasn't worried about Sandy, specifically because she knew she was with Trip, whom she instinctively trusted, and was rather comfortable knowing he was spending time with her pokemon. That said, she simply didn't want to be apart from Sandy anymore.

"I should go search for Sandy," she said. "This was nice, thanks Gary." She stood up.

"Wait, so, did it work?" He stood up too.

"What worked?"

"Are you enchanted by me?"

"Oh, you were serious?"

"Of course! I'm a very serious person, that's something you need to know about me. I don't play around."

"Right, well I still want to go search for Sandy."

"No you don't. You want to stay here with me, I know it."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"Because that's what my inner voice is telling me."

"I see, well, what my regular voice is saying is that I want to go search for my pokemon right now." Lana started walking away. Gary went after her and caught her hand.

"Wait! At least let me accompany you. Maybe you haven't been enchanted by me, yet. But the truth is, that I think you're really beautiful, and I'm afraid I've fallen under your spell."

Lana's eyes opened wide. Throughout the day, she had been toying with the idea that Gary was himself toying with her, and only went along with his tricks because she didn't know what else to do about it, and was curious about what Gary was really planning. In a way, Lana was just trying to amuse herself. But after Gary said that, she thought that, at the very least, he deserved for her to take the situation seriously, like she seldom did. Lana would've loved to continue acting as if she were outside of herself, only trying to test and observe other people's reactions. But Gary's words brought her back into her most conscious self, and forced her to confront the reality of the situation. Immediately she felt really bad. Something was wrong, she felt like she shouldn't have been there, with Gary. And the only reason behind that unease which Lana could see, was that she really liked Trip. She liked him. He was very cool, and very handsome too. There was a smooth and pleasant aura around him. His company was easy and enjoyable, even though he seemed like such a cold and seemingly unapproachable fellow. Even if Trip didn't like Lana very much, as she thought was the case, foolishly, she still wanted to hang out with him. Yes, even if he didn't want her near. And Lana did feel like Trip didn't want her near. He had been very quick to refute the notion that they could've been on a date when Gary asked, after all. In her mind, he didn't want her, and so Lana wanted to go back to being outside of herself, so that she didn't have to remember that she wanted him.

Even so, even with all that she felt, there she was with Gary, who had uttered the words that had brought her into herself. He should've just been quiet. But there they were walking back to the pool, where neither Trip nor Sandy lingered any longer. And she thought, foolishly, that Gary wanted her; she knew she didn't want him and instead she wanted Trip who in turn didn't want her, except that in reality he did want her, but in a way they all wanted each other, as Trip wanted Gary to disappear, and Lana wanted Gary to have kept quiet, and Gary wanted Trip to get together with Serena so that he could get his shady deals done, which wouldn't happen either way. Gary thought of this, meanwhile Lana thought that, maybe, it wasn't such a bad thing that Gary liked her. Because at least, she thought, someone liked her.

Lana's face was blushed red when Brock intercepted the couple. He arrived just in time to stop her from opening her mind to the interesting yet potentially heartbreaking possibilities behind Gary's cheesy words, which were fake. But then, as he placed himself right in front of the couple, Brock found that he had no words to explain the situation.

"Are you alright buddy?" Gary asked him, with a tone that made it obvious he was trying to assert his dominance over Brock to impress Lana. "You seem to be disoriented, do you need us to take you to the hospital?"

"I know everything," Brock said earnestly, right to Gary's face.

"Sure you do buddy."

"I know what you're trying to do to Ash. I know about the deal you made with Palermo. I know you're lying, right now."

Brock's words hit Gary hard, so hard he unconsciously lost his cool facade and the internal panic he immediately suffered as a result showed on his face, for a few seconds. But then he focused really hard on restoring his calm semblance, and he managed to do it using the sudden hate he felt towards Brock as a motivator.

"I don't know what you're talking about dude, you probably got hit in the head pretty hard," Gary said with an arrogant smile, head tilted to the side and eyes closed. "You should go take a rest."

"You won't get away with this Gary."

"I sure won't, whatever you mean by that." Gary then turned to Lana, forcing a smile from which anxiety managed to seep through. "Let's get out of here Lana, it seems this guy is hallucinating or something."

These words didn't sit well with Max and Iris, who were observing attentively from nearby, waiting for a moment, any moment to act.

"Hey!" they shouted in unison. Then they went to block Gary's path, as he put his arm around Lana and tried and failed to lead her away.

"Don't talk to Brock like that!" Iris exclaimed with a stern expression on her face. "You have no idea of what he did for you just a few hours ago. He saved your life and you don't even know it!"

"We have no time for this, Lana is very desperate to get her pokemon back, so you'll have to excuse us. Man, what is going on with these people today? This party is out of control."

"That's what I've been saying this whole time!" Brock shouted loudly, loosing his cool for just a second.

"Wow! This could turn ugly. Don't worry Lana, I'll protect you. Hey, buddy, you're going to have to calm down, otherwise I won't hesitate to stop you if I perceive that there's a chance you might get violent."

"What did you say?" Max then reacted. "Only we get to hurt Brock, and only by accident!" Without hesitation, eyeing his next target in the form of Gary, the angry little kid went for Axew who was nearby, caught him by surprise, as the little dragon was pleasantly just standing there absent-minded and with his red gaze lost, and Max grabbed him from his little dragon belly with both of his hands, lifted him over his head while Iris audibly protested and Axew reacted by twirling around, unsuccessfully trying to escape Max's hold, and then Max threw him at the target as Brock instinctively hid behind the confused Gary, which turned out to be a very good decision from Brock, as Axew's horn sought him out while his little head flew on the air, and if it hadn't been for Gary's chest, which received the piercing hit entirely, and painfully, Axew's horn would've hit Brock. It instead hit Gary, took the air out of him and took him down on his back.

Brock seized the opportunity to talk to Lana.

"Look, you don't know me but I know who you are, Lana. I'm a friend of Ash. And I wish we could've met under significantly more pleasant circumstances, but it can't be helped. Ash has talked to me about you, that's why I recognized your name when I heard what was going on, which I'm about to tell you. I know you're a good friend of Ash, just like Trip, and just like Gary, who isn't a very good friend, but is a friend nonetheless, a slimy friend. I don't know Trip personally, but I happen to know that, that, he has something important to tell you. I'm sorry about Gary, but he isn't acting in a very genuine way right now. He's trying to get some deals done and for some reason that includes keeping you occupied."

"What? Well, I guess he was acting a bit strange," Lana said, holding her chin with her right hand. "He did seem kind of desperate, something just seemed a little bit off to me. And most of what he was saying was pretty hard to believe. He said he was going to give Ash a great gift."

"It's a rather complicated mess. And I'm sure Gary probably thinks he is doing it for Ash, though in reality he's doing it all for himself. I know it might be hard to believe."

"Oh, not at all. You mean Gary being self-centered and selfish? I can believe that. But how do you know Trip has something very important to say to me?"

"The same way I know Gary hasn't been very honest with you. You're going to have to trust me. I'm sorry, I don't have anything else to add, except that you should go and talk to him."

"Do you know where Trip is?"

"I don't, I'm sorry," Brock said, clearly mad at himself.

"Are you guys talking about Trip?" Iris interjected all of the sudden. "I saw him hanging out by Ash's house, he was with an eevee. They were sharing a candy bar, it was cute, though I don't really like Trip."

"Why not?" Max asked Iris.

"Meh, he's too annoying, like, childishly annoying, thinks he's very smart but isn't, and doesn't know when to shut up."

"Are you not talking about yourself?" Max interjected, once more earning Iris's anger.

Lana's afflicted state ameliorated significantly once she heard from Iris about Trip and Sandy. She wanted to start running toward them, to Ash's house. Before doing that though, she turned to Brock and company.

"Thanks for helping me," Lana said.

"It was no problem at all, go find Trip and your pokemon," Brock replied.

"Yes, I'll do that, but first, please tell me who you are."

"I'm Max."

"I'm Iris."

"The name's Brock, Pewter City Gym Leader at your service."

"Thank you Brock." Lana bowed before them.

And then she left to find Trip and Sandy, as Brock and company stared at her back and watched her move decisively, as Gary laid on his back, holding his belly with his hands, still processing the pain.

"You're welcome…" Brock whispered to himself. "…Go, and find that for which I've always been looking for."


	6. Chapter 6

6

Lana ran to Ash's house. It was a good distance away from where she was at the pool, a distance which could tire even an athletic person like Lana. It wasn't like she practiced rigorous weightlifting or anything similar, nor was she able to accumulate muscular mass, but she was used to running through the beaches of Alola every morning, along with Sandy, whom she was dying to see again. To do so, she had to cross through myriads of people offering her food, donuts, chips, salads and drinks. And sweets of many different colors. She had no time for any of that, and so she left the pool and the food stands behind. Then it was the dance-floor under the tent, which she chose to avoid entirely by going around it. Even so, the frantic pace inside it, the deafening music coming from it along with the blinding lights, courtesy of dj-ressentiment, aka Paul, got to her, made the inside of her skull tremble and disrupted her senses, and then, after a very disorienting moment Lana found herself back where she started at the pool.

Lana ended up at the perfect spot where she could get a panoramic view of the whole thing. The food stands, the porta potties, the above-ground pool; the few houses there with all their windows open, visibly full of noisy people; many more people walking around, holding drinks in their hands, wearing flashy make-up and carefree hairdos, open shirts and bermuda shorts, capri pants and tank tops, straw trilby hats, and shades, lots of shades; all smiling and wearing shades, lots of shades, that came in myriads of colors, all the while, at each sides of the party, perfectly limiting the party zone, two sources of smoke ascended to the sky without attention to grab. To Lana's left, the strongest and most condensed source of smoke of a dark gray, the bonfire, raging wild and growing rapidly. And to her right, a fainter and clearer smoke, barely visible, which was merely the remnant of the fire at Oak's stable, although Lana didn't know this. The two pillars of smoke contained the energy of the place within it, which reached Lana's chest, and from it she could feel an exhausted kind of life which had to continue, seemingly forever.

They were all having fun, she thought. Maybe it wasn't a problem, but only because if something was wrong, and it most certainly was, then it couldn't be solved. It was just as it was, as it would be. They wouldn't stop, and that was that. Therefore, why get worked up about them not leaving?

At the same time that Lana wanted all of them to keep having fun, because she could see that at least they were happy, she wanted all but two of them to disappear. She wanted everyone except a boy and a pokemon to become invisible. She sensed her heartbeat raise as she started sweating, and felt herself succumbing to a very dreadful kind of anxiety, which at the same time it didn't let her move it didn't let her be. She forced herself to get back into that hectic zone, she was going to find them, regardless of how much distress it brought her. Her eyes veered off to all directions, it was all smiles letting out boisterous laughs which never ended, accompanied steadily by the throbbing music and myriads of colors assaulting her, that with every turn of her eyes she thought it closer to hallucinating. It was vibrant pink wrapping tanned skin, and then fluorescent rays coming from all the hair dyes sent her mind for a spin, and then the green of the grass beneath took over her view, and then laughs which echoed for what seemed an asphyxiating eternity, into loud music, while distorted limbs shaking to its rhythm turned into an indistinguishable mass contoured within a white halo. It was too much, she had to get out of there.

Lana arrived at Gary's house, which was also filled with people and their noise. There was a pool, and people and pokemon were jumping into it from the roof of the house, which was also packed to the brim. Finally Lana arrived to Ash's house, and found it to be much more calm and less packed than the rest. All the windows but one on the second floor were open. However, although things outside of her calmed down a bit, her heart kept pounding dreadfully, as neither Trip nor Sandy seemed to be there at all. Lana was dismayed besides anxious, and was not in spirits to continue her search.

She found a calm and deserted spot besides Ash's house, where she sat on the grass, resting her back on the wall. She crossed her arms and rested them on her knees, and became quietly sad. She found a bit of transient peace among all the chaos, and slowly, as she spent more time in there by herself, she felt herself becoming an entirely separate entity from the rest of the people there. And this aggravated her anxiety. It was as if she had been ripped apart from that place in a very violent manner, and there was no way she could go back to being part of their world. It was suddenly very scary for some reason. All of them talking and laughing and reveling in all the explosive noise, and Lana, so very quiet, just sitting there.

There was nothing she could do but stay there and be overwhelmed, it was really a terrible feeling. Very soon she found herself pondering only about how awful she felt, and after some time thinking in silence she felt a very soothing sensation coming out of nowhere, taking over her. Suddenly it was not so bad anymore, she was not part of that whole thing anymore, but she didn't feel like she had been left behind, or defenseless, instead it was as if she had escaped. And then it was all peace and harmony for her in spite of the throbbing music. Lana stood up, no longer sad, and directed a rested look at the sea of limbs. She could see all of their individual faces, they were no longer a disorienting black mass. Some were happy, others were raging wildly, a few of them were even crying, and some others were shouting at one another, and among all of them, standing quietly beneath a rather tall tree, not far from Ash's house, were Trip and Sandy, both of them visibly without a purpose and bored. Lana sprinted toward them with a smile on her face.

As Lana neared and got a better look at them, she was pleased to find that Sandy was resting comfortably close to Trip, her little body almost touching his ankle, and though it seemed to be rather sad, Lana guessed this was because of her absence, and not from Trip's silent, seemingly cold and yet somehow comforting company. With his long and lush blond hair, his piercing blue eyes. I guess she could see why he liked his appearance so much.

When she arrived and placed herself right in front of them their semblances immediately lightened up, and then there was a small pause which wasn't awkward at all. It was just that both Trip and Lana wanted to speak, but as they looked at each other they realized they didn't know what to say.

"Is everything alright?" Trip formulated and then brought forth, attempting to reveal many things with such a simple question.

"It is now," Lana replied happily. Immediately afterwards she felt pretty proud of her answer.

"What exactly changed?" Trip asked a bit more suggestively. And that was his attempt at flirting.

At this Lana raised an eyebrow and stayed silent. She sensed it was the appropriate response, it probably was. Then she knelt down to pet her pokemon, which quickly jumped into her arms full of joy.

"There's your answer," Lana said to Trip. "Did you have fun with Trip?" she then said to Sandy, who responded with an effusive nod with eager eyes. That simple gesture was a huge victory for Trip, and he couldn't help but smile. Lana knew instantly that with that simple gesture from her happy pokemon Trip had passed a very important test. Then she stood up, holding Sandy in her arms, and Trip got in front of her and started petting Sandy's head, and she eagerly received his light yet somehow warm caresses. Both Lana and Sandy could sense a warmth coming from Trip, and it took them by surprise, after realizing that such kind of feeling could be contained inside of that serious fellow, and that he could even transmit it so effortlessly. The three of them had smiles on their faces, there was much to discuss but they remained silent. It was a jarring scene compared to the rest of that place, from which their little atmosphere was completely separate then. And so they got closer as Trip took a step forward, the party's disruption had been effectively nullified. It no longer mattered how much noise the rest of the made, or how close they were to the chaos that humanity constituted, to which they still belonged but were unaffected by.

The chaos increased, the screams became louder and devoid of laughter. Bodies moved with more violence. The vast amounts of energy that was accumulated came alive and could be felt as an intense heat wave. And yet the trifecta was unaffected by it all, until they realized that something else had happened. It was not just careless noise and mindless celebration. All of the sudden the heat turned much more intense, and Trip and Lana couldn't ignore their instincts, which told them there was danger. Both of them lamented leaving that pleasant atmosphere behind, where they didn't need to communicate with words how much they enjoyed each other's company. It was Lana's senses that woke up first, and she was suddenly very alert and ready to protect that for which she cared the most. So she held Sandy firmly in her arm, and with her free hand she promptly grabbed on to Trip. His palm was very soft, he definitely moisturized regularly. At least he was consistent. Anyway, she led the way as they went to investigate, and it didn't take them long to discover what was up. It was fire, more specifically the bonfire had been unleashed. It was overflowing like a dam would, but with fire, and was rapidly consuming the grass around it as people nearby panicked and did nothing but run around it. They didn't try to put the fire out, nor did they try to escape. They basically ran in circles with their arms raised. And they shouted a lot.

"Primarina, come out!" Lana shouted as she threw a pokeball, and out came with a lovely high-pitched chant her beautiful primarina, with scintillating sky-blue hair, long and wild, and barely tied up with seemingly two pearl strings almost from the bottom. It was the first thing Trip noticed about her, his eyes couldn't hide the delight he got from contemplating such imagery, which continued as he directed his sight to complete her figure. She seemed to be wearing a crown fitting for the queen of the sea, with a big blue seashell at the top, pink stars at the sides, and white pearls at the front, holding it together. She had snow-white skin, piercing blue eyes shining as if hit by the sun at all times. A long and delicate nose which took an elegant trip to the front to end in a perky little ball colored pink. A jovial smile, and that was just her face. Trip followed her lissome physique with curves and refined touches until it reached her deep blue fins, then he looked at Lana with his mouth open, and understood just how awesome she was.

"Jellicent, come out," Trip said after a few lethargic seconds, as he threw a pokeball of his own. Out came a giant blue ball with eyes, wearing a small crown on top of its round head. This ball had tentacles coming out from below it, and looked like it was sporting a big white mustache. Lana was very amused by it. "Of course Trip has a water pokemon that's wearing a crown," she thought. But then she remembered that Primarina herself also sported a crown, and stopped laughing mentally.

Both of them ordered their pokemon to shoot water at the fire, but their first strikes did nothing to quell it, and it was barely contained.

Out of nowhere came Samson Oak riding a tauros. He was Samuel's tanned cousin who had very long white hair, remember? The angry tauros from which he was barely holding mindlessly headed straight into the fire at full throttle, until the heat proved too much too bare, right before the beast and the professor could be seriously harmed by making direct contact with the flames, with great difficulty, the tauros planted its limbs on the ground, being dragged with considerable danger by the sheer inertia of its own body. However, after managing to brake Samson Oak was thrown off the tauros which was then safe, unlike the professor, who fell dangerously close to the flames, and on the verge of his mortality. The flames seemed to propagate around him in a circle, which upon closing would trap him inside, and then there would be no hope for him.

"Professor!" Lana shouted without moving. She knew him very well, he was one of her most beloved teachers back on her home region of Alola. In fact, she secretly loved the cringe-worthy jokes he'd make every time he opened his mouth, but was too ashamed to admit it to her friends.

At hearing her so distressed, Trip ran to the professor with very calculated movements and an impromptu plan already formulated on his brain. He was not acting recklessly, but on studied instincts which he had arduously developed during his journey. Meanwhile Samson Oak couldn't react, just suffer, both from the unbearable heat and from thinking it could become his awful end. Also, his rear, on which he was laying still, hurt pretty bad from the tauros fall, though at that point he could barely notice, as he was significantly more preoccupied with the seething sensation on his skin. Trip valiantly stepped in to save him but stopped right in front of the flames, which seemed to make a barrier between him and Samson, and which were about to close like the curtains at the end of an act of a play, right in the middle of his field of view. Lana ran to them with the two water pokemon behind her and placed herself behind Trip. He could only hear her orders right before he noticed two powerful blue streams, each directed at one side of the fire curtains. This gave him enough room to step in and get the professor out of there. He grabbed the frail old man by the arm and helped him to stand up, then they hurried to escape the fire which was too wild and powerful to be stopped by only two pokemon, and so when they were out of immediate danger and the water pokemon stopped their attack, the fire curtains continued their way and closed, and became even wilder.

"What are we gonna do?" Cried one of the panicked party goers.

"Run away!" Trip answered, and then he and the rest followed his advice, and finally moved away from the fire—they were still in shock after all.

Meanwhile none other than Palermo was enjoying herself quite a bit, still in party mode, in the rave which was still going on normally at Gary's house. She had accepted that it wasn't going to quiet down enough for her to lie down quietly by the pool, certainly not anymore with all of the people that had appeared out of nowhere. But at least she could still enjoy watching them injure themselves with a drink in her hand. She was still wearing her red framed sunglasses, from which her scheming eyes couldn't be discerned, and she had a rather pleased smile on her face.

A long-faced Gary approached her, still holding his aching stomach.

"It's done," he said dourly.

"What's done?" Palermo replied without looking at him.

"I've made Lana fall in love with me. Now Trip is free and ready for Serena to fall in love with him, however it is that you're going to make that happen."

"Oh, don't worry about that. She listens to me. She's smart, she can tell that I know what's best for her."

"Right, well good luck. So, Lana's actually taking me back to Alola for a quick vacation."

"So quickly?"

"Yes, I move fast," Gary said confidently. "But, before I go, I would like to get the rights to Ash's face secured. Look, you can choose the sponsors, and they can be from Kanto so that he stays here and doesn't bother you or Serena. But you have to let me sign the deals, it's what we agreed."

"Of course, I have them ready," she said, still not looking at him.

Gary could tell that she was lying. He could tell because he, just like her, was a schemer—which is one way of saying he was a two-faced person, a terrible, selfish person. And he immediately had that instinct, because he himself was lying about the whole thing. Gary was lying, and he couldn't decide if Palermo could see right through him or not. Suddenly he felt a charge of adrenaline go through his egocentric body, and he dropped the whole facade.

"Look, I'll level with you Palermo. I didn't make her fall in love with me, she's probably with Trip right now. I could've made her fall in love with me if I had wanted to. But guess what, I knew from the beginning that you wouldn't make good on your side of the deal."

"You're just an amateur Gary," Palermo said, still without looking at him. "You're way out of your league. It's obvious why you couldn't get any deals done. Pack it up and go home."

"Amateur huh? Then how about this, Ash is very gullible. We all know this. He would believe most things. And I just so happen to be a very good friend of his, whom he has known since he was a child. He will believe what I tell him. So what if I tell him to go to Kalos, and start promoting himself there? He can travel wherever he wants, you can't stop him. What if I invite him to go to Kalos to see his dear friend Serena compete in the Kalos Grand Festival? What if we make some acquaintances there and he ends up signing some sponsorships there, with my help, and we ended up staying there? That doesn't seem so far-fetched, does it?"

Palermo showed her teeth, she couldn't help releasing a grunt filled with a very concrete wrath. Suddenly she wished she hadn't called Gary an amateur. Afterwards she went back to her cool demeanor, as schemers usually do, and tried to maintain her superiority.

"Perhaps I underestimated you, that was my bad. But you should really rethink your position. Do you really think it's a good idea to blackmail me? Honey, you don't want to mess with me."

"You think you're so smart don't you. You're not, you're not clever, and you're not sneaky. Everyone can see what you're doing. You really want Serena to win the Kalos Grand Festival, you need it so bad. That's why you started couching her, you saw an opportunity in her, not for her, but for you. If everyone thinks you helped her win then it will be your victory too. But everyone, even me, knows that Serena's success is only her own, it has nothing to do with you. You're nothing but an old has-been who wants to cling to Serena's talent and hard-earned success, while doing close to nothing to actually help her and motivate her. Your time is over, it's time to pack it up and go home."

"Shut up!" Palermo shouted loudly. And then she shouted again, and again, fully consumed by the anger that Gary's words—which were the last thing she wanted to hear—brought out of her. "Shut up! I'll tell the sponsors to leave, I'll make them sign Ash with an agent of my choosing. You think you could get someone in Kalos? Fool! I have connections. You will never make money off of him! Never!"

"I don't care what you say, your time is almost up anyway. For now though, you've gained a powerful enemy and you shouldn't underestimate me, you said it yourself."

Palermo Ran off in frustration. Being a schemer, she already had an alternative plan ready to execute. She went to Johanna, who was still desperately looking for Ash. Albeit she was doing that in a passive way at the moment, she was sitting down nicely, eating a handful of sweets of many different colors, when Palermo approached her.

"Hello, I hear you want to catch the champion's attention. I want someone else to lose it. We could help each other."

"What do you have in mind?" Johanna asked.

"I need Ash Ketchum to be unavailable, and as far away from Kalos as possible."

"Does Sinnoh work for you?"

"Yes. You can marry him off to your daughter if you take him to Sinnoh."

"Works for me. What do you need?"

"I need to get rid of another, smaller distraction. I heard you have a muscle I could use."

Johanna smiled knowingly. "Drayden!"

Meanwhile, behind the table full of sweets.

"I have to say it once more, Serena," Professor Oak said, between bites, "these treats are supernaturally delicious. I seem to be unable to stop eating them."

"Well, once again professor," Serena said, fully focused on the machine producing countless sweets at an incredibly fast pace; at the same pace the myriads of people there ate them, "it is because of your machine that we have the sweets at all. Hmm, hmm. We should be very proud of ourselves, I'm sure this party will be over in no ti-" She looked at the professor, Samuel Oak. Her eyes opened wide, full of fright. Firstly she laughed, or rather she began to laugh, but stopped right after the first small exhalation. Serena couldn't believe what she was seeing, she couldn't understand it. She screamed loudly, making her throat hurt. Professor Oak seemed to have the nose of a herdier all of the sudden, a humid black dot instead of his usual human nose, and a blink later he had the pointy brown ears at the top of his head. At first she thought he was pulling a practical joke on her, but then, then brown hair began growing all over his face, and that's when she screamed, and kept screaming as cream-colored fur grew in and was modeled sort of like a mustache. His eyes changed. They seemed to become more, simple, all of the sudden. Cream colored fur filled the bridge over his nose as well as his forehead, as darker brown fur replaced the rest of his hair and filled the rest of his face. His pointy ears also became larger and much more like a herdier's. Purple fur filled his neck, and this seemed the most horrifying to Serena at that point, though that would change soon afterwards. All of the sudden there seemed to be the head of a herdier on an otherwise human body, and this was before the full transformation. Horrified, and instinctively aware of what had happened, up to a point, Serena shrieked from the crippling fear, and then turned to the table, and looked at all of her sweets of myriads of colors. Then she raised her sight, and took in the horrible nightmare that was people turning into pokemon right in front of her. And it must be added that she had not ingested a single sweet herself, because she wanted the people to eat as many as possible so they'd leave as soon as possible. And so they had eaten as much as they could've, and they were turning into pokemon. It was horrible to see, and once they took notice of their situation, it was horrible to hear.


	7. Chapter 7

7

It was quiet, very quiet, and peaceful, when Ash woke up from a beautiful dream. In it, he was going up a spiral staircase made entirely out of gold, which went all the way to the sky. Myriads of flying pokemon were dancing all around him, among the clouds and the blue sky, making only pleasant sounds which felt like praises for achieving some kind of incredible feat. He got to the very end of the stairs, but there was no floor to come into, just a lonely last step in the middle of the sky. It was very high up from the ground but Ash wasn't scared, in fact he felt better than he had ever felt before. His life was over, but for some reason that didn't matter to him, or rather, he was at peace. Yes, that was it, that's how he felt. He wasn't scared, and he wouldn't be regardless of what happened, because his mind was full of only good things, and he desired nothing whatsoever. And because of that, his body as well as his surroundings were full of peace too, a kind of peace which would never leave him no matter what. Suddenly a hole opened up in the blue of the sky, and many clouds came in through it. And from the black hole, a red hand came through and showed its palm to Ash and then waved it for him, as if saying hello in a very friendly manner. At all of this Ash still wasn't scared at all, he just smiled and waved back at the red hand. Then the hand put its thumb up at him, as if approving of him for some reason. And then the hand lowered itself and turned its back at Ash, and started waving itself again, as if telling Ash to leave, as if it wasn't the time yet. As to the time for what, Ash didn't know, although he wasn't bothered by it. He simply kept waving goodbye at the hand.

And then he woke up from his dream with a smile on his face.

He found himself on his childhood bedroom, laying down on his soft childhood bed which he missed so much. He often dreamed of it during his lengthy travels, and when he arrived in Pallet Town he was looking forward to a nice rest like the one he had just had, after winning yet another league. That's when he discovered the town had been invaded by a frantic crowd that refused to leave. He had to admit to himself he was utterly disappointed, and felt guilty for it. Ash was dying to see his friends again, and he wanted for everyone there, both acquaintances and strangers, to have a great time. And if there was anything he could do to increase their delight, even if it was just with his presence, he felt like he should've been more than happy to do it. At the same time they were a terrible nuisance, he barely knew any of them, and he didn't owe them anything. And he wanted to rest.

Well, he was well-rested, and it was still a lovely day outside. Sure, the party had gone on for however many days already, but those kind of celebrations didn't happen often, Ash thought. So why not let them have it. What's more, he felt like he could take part in some of that delight right about then, after that soothing nap and that lovely dream. So Ash came down from his room without bothering to open the window, and heard some wild screams coming from the outside, and smiled. He prepared himself to take it all in and then he opened the door.

"Ash! Save me!" cried his mom, Delia. As she ran frantically, she held the hand of a little girl who was crying and running along with her, at the same time Delia held a little azurill to her chest with her other hand, while a confused tauros ran rampant towards her, unwittingly dragging along a broken piece of a food stand on fire which was tied to its tail, and was leaving a trace of fire that was also spreading on its trail. Ash rubbed his eyes with one hand and looked into his pockets with the other one, searching for his pokeballs. He didn't find any and Pikachu didn't seem to be anywhere, so the only thing that he could do with his numb arms and legs was to curse himself quietly. Suddenly the tauros was hit with a violent stream of water, and out of nowhere his rival-turned friend Trip appeared holding his orange jacket on his hands. The jellicent next to him him kept shooting water at the tauros, limiting its movements while Trip held his jacket up and waved it next to him for the tauros to see.

"Run!" he shouted at Delia and company, "I'll distract it!"

"Thank you so much! Please be careful," Delia replied. And then she hurried to get the little girl, the pokemon and herself out of the way.

Fire burned all over the place, everyone was running and screaming, they looked like freaks. Their strange faces were red and covered in hair, their eyes were bulging out, they were in peril.

"I'm sorry," Ash heard a familiar voice around him. "I'm so sorry professor. I didn't know this would happen." From her tone she seemed to be pleading, and full of grief. "It is all my fault, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

It was Serena nearby, holding a little herdier tight in her arms. The pokemon seemed to be rather calm, simply barking and licking her face as if telling her it was okay. She kept holding it tight as she began crying sorrowfully. It was a terrible sight for Ash to see, almost as it was strange.

Then he heard screams of a very strange nature. All of them seemed to be screaming out of fear, out of danger, but they were barely human, and as they screamed for help, it sounded almost like a bark that could come out of a pokemon. Or perhaps out of a hybrid of the two. And as Ash looked around, that's exactly what he saw all around him. People with pointy ears like those of an eevee or a buneary. Some of them with green tails coming out of them and waving as they ran. Some already covered in fur and running in all fours but still with their human faces; those were the hardest to look at. And the fire spread all over as they kept screaming horrible, inhumane sounds, which would've been fine if they had sounded either just human or just pokemon. But as they sounded like neither, and as Ash knew from what anomalous mouths they were coming, it was only harrowing to listen.

Suddenly Gary caught Ash's eye, as he ran desperately and then tripped and fell on his face. He was being chased by Drayden the Gym Leader from Unova and his haxorus, who then caught up to him.

"Why are you doing this Drayden?" Gary pleaded from the ground, tired and scared.

"I'm sorry, it is not personal. You shouldn't have tried to blackmail Palermo," Drayden said frighteningly.

"What are you getting from this?"

"Johanna and I had made a deal about Ash Ketchum, and she is now working together with Palermo."

"Oh no. You want the rights to his face too? Don't trust Palermo! She will double cross you in a second."

"The rights to his face? I don't know what you're talking about. Haxorus, use a mild version of Dragon Tail on this fool."

With the towering flames as a backdrop, Haxorus let out a cold, ruthless grunt before releasing a flail of its tail right at Gary, who, trying to escape, was struck hard on his back, and fell on the ground once more, this time with a cry full of pain.

"Everyone! Ready!" Ash then heard. It was Brock nearby, looking resolute and commanding. From behind him came many rousing shouts filled not with fear or with dread but instead with courage, coming mostly from pokemon. Ash saw all of his pokemon gathered around looking ready for battle, and then he likened that whole situation, which was already nightmarish enough, to a dream, nothing like the most pleasant one he was having mere minutes ago.

"Go! We have to stop this fire!" Brock shouted. And all of Ash's water type pokemon shot water at the flames producing plenty of steam and covering the place with it.

"Yes, let's do this!" Little Max cried, and then he grabbed Ash's totodile from its belly, with both of his hands, and raised it above his head.

"Max! Put Totodile down!"

"Okay!" Max shouted and then obeyed, and then Totodile kept actually trying to put out the fire.

But the fire kept going, and the people kept running and screaming fiendishly, and the music kept playing for some reason. And Ash simply couldn't believe what he was seeing, and so he couldn't move. He could only continue witnessing an unearthly kind of horror which then multiplied, and then he likened it even more to a horrible dream, when he saw himself walking next to Johanna, Dawn's mom. He saw himself, wearing his red cap covering his black hair, wearing his clothes, and then he couldn't help but sit down on the ground.

Meanwhile Johanna walked with Ritchie to meet with Dawn, thinking that she was holding on to Ash instead. The steam and the fire blurred her visibility, but even if she could see perfectly she wouldn't be able to notice that it wasn't really him.

Dawn was with Misty and May. They were also nearby. They were right in the middle of a battle with both Whitney and Candice. It was Mamoswine and Misty's Gyarados, and Blaziken, against Miltank and Sneasel, all the while Whitney cried out of frustration, and her cries came out like the mooing out of her own miltank. After observing her for a while Ash saw that there was something wrong with Whitney's face, there was something strange right in the middle of it; a black dot, which was her nose. Her skin seemed to be of an even more pink shade, and, most peculiar of all, she seemed to have grown little horns on top of her head. Still she continued battling, and struggling against her opponents who outnumbered her and Candice. That was, until Ramos, that's right, the Gym Leader from Kalos, appeared on the side of Whitney and Candice with his trusty gogoat.

"Remember me? I'm not afraid of you anymore Misty!"

"What does that mean Ramos?" Misty said. "And why are you doing this, in fact why are any of you doing this right now? We need to put out the fire!"

"Oh please," Daisy, Misty's sister said, as she appeared with her two sisters behind her. "You know why we're here, why we're all here. Don't play the fool."

"I'm not! I have no idea why you're still doing this!" Misty said.

"Did you really think we came all this way just to celebrate the return of the small-town champion? No way. We just want his key to the Golden City."

"Golden City? What are you talking about?" Dawn asked.

"You're insane, all of you," Misty exclaimed. "Whatever it is that you think you're doing, we'll stop you. Let's do this!"

"I'm afraid you won't stop us Misty," Drayden said, once more with a very imposing tone, as he joined the fight. And all the leaders proceeded to corner the three girls, and their situation seemed much more hopeless then.

"There's no time for this, we need to help putting out the fire!" Misty shouted.

"This is much more important than that," Daisy said from the sidelines.

"She's right!" Whitney exclaimed angrily, pushing through her alien discomfort. "We need to get you out of the way, now!"

The leaders took a step forward and trapped the girls in a circle, between the four Gym Leaders and their pokemon, and some flames behind them.

"Everyone stop!" Johanna exclaimed. Then she barged in right in the middle of the battlefield.

"Yes ma'am!" Drayden said firmly.

"What are you, her slave?" Candice said to him.

"She promised that once she married her daughter to the champion she'd let me talk to him about his key to the Golden City," Drayden replied.

"That's right," Johanna said. "And I don't know anything about a golden city, but guess what, I don't care. Here she is, Ash, my daughter. It may not be the perfect time to do this, but this is destined to happen, and we can't just waste any more time seeing as there are many obstacles around us just waiting for a chance to ruin this. Ash, my daughter loves you, please marry her."

"Mom," Dawn said, with a smile that she just couldn't contain on her face, "what are you doing?"

"I'm doing this for you."

"No!" Dawn then exploded against her mother, after hearing the supposed reason behind her actions one more time. "You're doing this for yourself! And for no one else! You just want to be part of a successful family, you want the fame and the fortune, and you're saying that you're doing it for me so that you don't feel guilty because of how selfish you are! …Besides, this isn't even Ash, it's just Ritchie with his hair dyed."

"More like polished, hey, what's up." Ritchie said calmly.

"WHAT!" Johanna cried horribly. "You're telling me that Palermo lied to me? No! You're saying I let her play me like a fool! All just to get back at Gary?"

"Yes, that's exactly what she did," Ritchie replied shamelessly. "Palermo paid me to do this too, and even though I hate being Ash I will start owning it, since I can't stop looking like him."

"THAT WITCH! I will destroy her!" Johanna screamed. And then she began raging, and grunting. She was clearly full of anger.

"Mom, please calm down. It's okay, it'll be okay if you just let it go. I'm sorry I just can't do what you want from me. We have to focus, please."

Johanna kept raging. She covered her face with her hands and continued growling angrily

"I'm doing this for you!"

"No you're not, but it's okay. I will forgive you, but only if you stop."

"You, forgive, me?"

"Yes, for being selfish, and for ignoring what I want. But if you can't let it go, I will never forgive you, mom. I really don't like you right now."

Johanna continued growling. In fact she was unable to stop. She started turning. Suddenly she grew black little horns. A mane seemingly made out of grass grew around her neck. Her hands and feet slowly turned into pink-colored hooves.

"After all I've done, for you… Dawn… I'm really s…" she managed to whisper before she was fully turned into a skiddo. Dawn was speechless, the atmosphere had been disrupted so much that the confrontation simply couldn't carry on, at least for a while after that horrendous sight.

Meanwhile Ash's pokemon kept trying to put out the fire, commanded by Brock. A Professor Sycamore with pointy ears, but otherwise fine, tried to help. So did a completely human Professor Kukui and a mostly human Samson Oak with a black pointy nose. Also there was Trip, struggling to put out the fire from the tauros which was still running rampant. The horned pokemon launched itself at Trip, who at least managed to focus all of its dangerous tackles at one target. But then he found himself in very serious danger as the tauros headed right at him as Lana watched hopelessly from afar. Hopelessly, until she reacted.

"Primarina!" she shouted, and that was all Primarina needed to know exactly what to do. Lana's Z-ring began shining brightly, she started saying a bunch of words as she waved her arms around, and from herself an aura of energy, blue like sparkling water hit by the rays of the sun, was transmitted to Primarina, who felt overwhelmed with power. She released a beautiful chant, after which appeared a little blue light that traveled all the way to the ground right beneath Trip, at which point it came to the surface as a little bubble, which was shining brightly from the inside. And this bubble grew bigger and bigger, and as it grew it lifted Trip right on top of it, saving him from the tauros, who then charged at the giant bubble and made it burst, releasing copious amounts of water all over the place, putting out the fire not only tied to the tauros, calming it down in the process, but most of the fire around, turning the tide in favor of the joined efforts to stop the fire, and filling everyone with hope. And when the bubble burst, Trip who happened to be safe and sound while sitting on top of it, dangerously fell to the ground, and was caught by Lana, right on her arms with formidable form. And then, as she had him in a bridal carry, and he was smiling at her with eyes full of relief, thankful for being saved by her, she decided to kiss him on the lips, and that's just what she did. She kissed him intensely just as the moment called for, and he returned the kiss. And then, after a quiet moment she set him down, and they looked at each other for another good moment. Both of them felt free to breathe like never before, their lungs seemed bigger and lighter all of the sudden. Trip and Lana looked right into each other's eyes, then they hugged.

And then they kissed again.

"What the hell is going on!" Ash shouted, once again standing. "Are Trip and Lana going out now? How long have I been sleeping? I was just taking a nap!"

"That's what got you to react?" Delia, safe and sound, said.

"I guess!"

"Also, please don't curse dear."

"I'm sorry! Also! Where the… hell! Sorry! Is Pikachu!"

As Ash screamed, from the horizon, as some flames still burned and a lot of smoke raised to the sky, came Pikachu walking in two feet, proudly and very sure of himself. And behind him, from the smoke came a multitude of regular humans following at his pace. Among them was none other than Dj-ressentiment, aka Paul, who seemed alleviated and even grateful.

"Honestly Ash," Paul said once they all got to the rest of them, "I want to hate you, I mean I really do, but I just can't. Instead I have to thank you, your Pikachu just saved all of us from being burned alive on the dance-floor."

"Really?" Ash said in amazement, "that's great! About all of you surviving I mean, although I guess what he did is really cool too."

"Yeah I mean it was extraordinary, and this is coming from me, who hates your guts and wishes for that same Pikachu to be a useless doofus, but I just can't say stuff like that anymore. I mean you should've been there, he was running and jumping all over the place, saving all of us one by one. And seriously, you should've been there, and you should've stayed there so that you died in the fire. Because I hate you, I really do. But really, it was an extraordinary feat from Pikachu. I can see why you've been champion so many times, and I hate myself for being able to see it. But anyway, it was as if Pikachu had been possessed by the spirit of heroism itself. You should've seen it. But also it's a good thing that you didn't see it, because I'm glad you didn't get to witness such awesomeness, cause I hate you. But seriously, he even took photographs of everything in there so that I don't have to pay anything to the insurance company, you know, for the speakers that got roasted."

"Really? Wow, that's awesome."

"Yeah, and I'm glad you missed all of it. Pikachu is awesome, and I want to die."

Pikachu then jumped into Ash's arms, and he received him eagerly.

"Oh man," Paul said, "even that jump into an embrace looked awesome! I hate it."

"Pikachu!" Ash said as he cuddled Pikachu in his arms, "I'm sorry I've felt so down recently. I should've been with you helping."

"Yeah, you should've," said dj-ressentiment. "At least so you could see what he did. It was truly amazing. I wish somebody had filmed it… Hey! Everyone!" Paul then noticed Ritchie was just standing there, and he pointed at him. "That's him! That's the guy who was impersonating Ash on the dance-floor! He's the one who made you give him kisses on the cheek! Let's get him!"

"Oh crap!" Ritchie shouted. And in that same instant, as his voice came violently out of his mouth, he accepted his fate. He had tried to fly, and now it was time to come down.

And so the multitude of regular humans, which included a group of scantily clothed girls, went after him. Ritchie ran away and they proceeded to give chase. He then tripped and fell on the ground. As a last resource Ritchie made himself into a little ball covering his head with his arms, and the girls kicked him around a bit.

Palermo appeared out of nowhere, with a very calm demeanor that clashed jarringly with the overall mood.

"Will the lot of you shut up soon?" she said with a magnanimous tone, wearing a bikini and holding a drink in her hand. "What is it with all this noise?"

"Do you seriously not know what's going on?" Delia asked her.

"Yes, I do know. You've been making way too much noise and-"

"Palermo!" Gary cried from the ground. "I'm not going to be intimidated by somebody like you! Did you seriously think you could bully me out of this deal?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Gary, you must have hit your head pretty hard."

"I said that same thing to Brock just a while ago! And guess what, I was lying. I knew exactly what Brock was talking about."

"I think you might have lost your head dear," Palermo said. Then she walked over to Serena, who was still kneeling on the ground crying, and desperately holding on to the herdier, who was actually Professor Oak, still. "It's time to head back to Kalos Serena. We must begin training for the Grand Festival."

"This is all my fault," Serena uttered, not really listening. "I did this, to all of you. I'm so sorry."

Ash went over to her. Palermo tried to fulminate him with a look, but he didn't notice.

"What happened Serena?"

Serena closed her eyes and grieved harder. She couldn't dare to look at him.

"I… I just wanted to make everyone satisfied. Just to feed them so they'd stop this party. But I couldn't make enough sweets for everyone, so the professor helped me by building a machine that made the sweets much, much faster. But something went wrong, and the sweets that the machine made ended up turning everyone into pokemon. I'm so sorry, it's all my fault."

"Surely there must be something we can do."

"Oh, Ash."

"Serena, we should go," Palermo said.

"How can you say that?" Serena replied. "I can't leave. Didn't you hear me? This is all because of me."

"I heard you, and it seems the professor is really to blame."

A pokemon whined loudly, with a high-pitched bleat. Everyone turned towards its battle-cry. It was Skiddo-Johanna, already preparing an angry tackle. She exhaled angry vapor out of her black nostrils, and then stirred the dirt beneath with her front hooves a few times. Palermo was at first confused, then she was truly scared when she saw the skiddo charging at her full of rage. She could do nothing but stare, with her sunglasses falling from her nose, leaving her bulging eyes naked to experience the full travel of Johanna until she tackled her right on the stomach and sent her to the ground.

Out of nowhere a little, round poliwag wearing black sunglasses appeared, and with its flat tail it started hitting Palermo's face while she was on the ground gasping for air.

"What's happening?" Candice, out of all people, frozen and confused like everyone else, said.

"I think that's Scott," Misty said. "It's definitely Scott, he was plowing through those sweets like crazy. But why is he so angry at Palermo?"

"I don't know," Gary disingenuously said from the ground. "I don't know why they are so angry at each other, but Ash, we can still do this bro. It's going to be great, trust me, I'll help you deal with all of it. Speaking of which, let's sign those deals and get it going, together… together… ah, screw it, we were just being greedy, selfish jerks." He then fainted, and after another tackle from Skiddo-Johanna to Palermo when the latter tried to get up, so did she.

"What a strange day," said Ash, as he stared at the bodies laying down, and the steam covering the place, rendering all the people affected by the sweets in a blurry haze.

"And it isn't over!" exclaimed pokemonized Whitney.

"Yes it is!" came as a resounding shout, which forced everyone to shut up and turn to its clear origin just from the sheer confidence that was heard. The shout had come from a residue of fire, which had been completely put out; it was all over. From the abundant steam came triumphantly, Brock and all of Ash's pokemon, slowly, awesomely, all with accomplished smiles on their faces, even Max and Iris, who also walked triumphantly.

"Party's over, time to go," Brock said with his hands on his hips.

"Yeah, what Brock said!" Max shouted, taking away some of the magnitude from Brock's awesome line.

"You stupid child," Whitney said, with a strange voice augmented by a heavy echo, as if she had two throats inside of her, which made it quite unnerving. "This has barely begun." She noticed everyone staring weirdly at her unsettling appearance, but had no time to care about it. "I might look like a monster, but that's not going to stop me. I'm here for Ash's key to the Golden City, and I won't leave without it."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ash said. "I've never even heard of a Golden City."

"Of course you haven't!" Candice added. "It's a well-guarded secret, so well-guarded that even those who have heard of it doubt its existence. The Golden City exists however, but knowing about it isn't enough. Its apparent location is only revealed to those who have won many pokemon leagues. That's you Ash."

"Nobody has told me anything."

"Not yet, but soon," Daisy, yes Misty's sister, said. "And we'll be here when that happens."

"Wait, did you all come here just for that?" Ash said, visibly disappointed.

"Yes, why?" Candice replied very quickly.

"I thought you had come here to celebrate with me, cause you cared about me."

"No way, are you crazy? Why would we do that?" Drayden said.

"We don't care about you, we just care about your key," Daisy added, mercilessly.

"Well I don't have it, so you can go home now," Ash said, wiping the trace of a tear from his eye. It was partly from his remaining sleepiness, partly from the sadness that came after finding out the Gym Leaders hadn't come to celebrate his victory.

Right as Ash finished speaking and wiped his tear off, a loud howl came from the sky, once again forcing everyone to turn their heads in awe. It was none other than Cynthia, Sinnoh League Champion dressed all in black, with her beautiful blonde hair waving with the light wind, majestically floating on the sky, holding on to a large drifblim like an umbrella, and heading towards them.

"Here it comes!" Candice said. And everyone got ready.

Cynthia landed and headed straight for Ash.

"Hello Ash," she said confidently.

"Where did you come from Cynthia?" asked he, astonished.

"From the sky. Listen, I have something very important to tell you. It's so important, that I came here all the way from a far away land as soon as I learned your location. Seeing as you have become part of a very exclusive group of multiple-time champions, you are owed the reveal of a place like no other. And as I happen to be a friend of yours, I asked to be the one to reveal it to you, so please come with me."

"Is this about the Golden City? Because everyone here knows about it."

"What?" Cynthia exclaimed, visibly dismayed. "Did you tell them? And who told you? Was it Lance? I tell you, that man has lost his mind. I said I would do it, I said I would tell you, but of course there's no reasoning with that guy."

"No, I didn't know anything about it. I still don't really know anything except that it might exist."

"Right, well that's all the rest of the population can ever know about it."

Cynthia then identified Candice, who, as a Gym Leader from Sinnoh was Cynthia's direct underling. Candice was immediately embarrassed and tried to cower out of sight, unlucky for her there was nowhere to hide from her boss.

"Candice! What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm sorry. It was worth the shot though," Candice said. "Why won't you let me help you look for the Golden City? You're greatly underestimating me. Nobody has ever found it, all the champions so far have failed. It isn't fair that no one else can even try."

"Nobody said it was fair."

"They all came here for my key to the Golden City, not because it was my party," Ash said to Cynthia.

"I would've come, if only I hadn't been so busy."

"What are you doing these days?"

"…Searching for the Golden City," Cynthia said after a pause.

"Of course you are, you want the gold, the powerful pokemon and the riches all to yourself," Whitney said.

Cynthia looked at Whitney, ignored her strange appearance and focused on Ash.

"Wait Whitney," Ash said, "so all you were doing before, all of the stuff about helping me train and being with me, was all an act to get my key to the Golden City?"

"Yes," Whitney said unscrupulously.

"Man, that sucks."

"Don't worry Ash," Cynthia continued, "the key is only yours. Yes, the Golden City is an irresistible prospect. Unlimited power, gold to spill, and riches beyond your wildest dreams."

"I don't dream about riches, I dream about hands," Ash brought forth.

"Right, no, that's… you're missing the point. Please let me finish explaining this."

"Okay."

"Yes, the elusive Golden City of El Dorado, an inexhaustible treasure coveted for millennia."

"Why is it called that?"

"Because, the man who reigned over it was a golden man. Anyway-"

"Why was he golden? I mean, what was golden about him?"

"Shut! Up!"

"Sorry."

"Ash, whatever. As I was saying, the Golden City has been a promise coveted for thousands of years, because apparently no one has ever found it, not really. There have been numerous quests, most of them fruitless. Other times some gold has been found, incredibly powerful, previously unknown pokemon have been sighted, but no one has ever stumbled upon that hidden paradise full of unending wealth and power, where it is said that the riches are so abundant, that the locals have no qualms about dumping it on their lakes. Are you ready to take on this newest quest?"

Ash hesitated, his eyes opened wide. He genuinely didn't want to answer. Meanwhile Pikachu by his side answered very quickly by putting his tiny fist in front of his face and barking decisively.

"I… yes?" Ash replied. "Do I get the key now?"

"No," Cynthia replied. "It isn't a physical key, it's a metaphorical one. To obtain it, you must accompany me to the Sicaum Region."

"The Sicaum Region?" All of the sudden Herdier-Oak spoke. The voice of the very human professor Samuel Oak came out of the mouth of the herdier in Serena's arms. His regular, unchanged voice, unshackled by the pokemon's fangs and tongue.

Everyone gasped.

"Professor Oak! You can speak?" Ash said.

"Yes, it seems the process of metamorphosis has finished and my body has settled. Now as I was about to say before I was rudely interrupted, the Sicaum Region is to where my Friend Copal escaped after his experiments were discovered."

"What type of experiments?"

"Thank you for asking Ash." Herdier-Oak continued. "Copal simply crossed a few ethical lines, he wasn't really harming anyone, I don't think. He was working with the molecular structure of both human and pokemon, specifically, he was looking for ways to unleash a pokemon's full potential, and not only to know the exact moment a pokemon's evolution would take place, but to have full control over it as well. I fear his expertise is what we need right now, if we want to learn how to revert the effects of my machine."

"This is all my fault Professor, let me find a way to fix this," Serena said.

"Please don't blame yourself Serena, my doing is clearly at fault."

"But it's all because of what I was doing. We have to find your colleague."

"Yes, Professor Copal."

"Ash," Serena said, with the remnant of her tears still fresh on her cheeks, "please let me come with you. Let me find a solution to the problem that I've created."

"Yes Ash," Herdier-Oak said, "let us find a solution to the problem we, but more specifically I, created."

"Sure," Ash—while Cynthia observed cautiously—replied. "The more the better, right Pikachu?"

"Hey Ash," Cynthia interjected before Pikachu could reply; he would've barked enthusiastically. "A very important reason as to why regular people can't know about the Golden City is that Sicaum is an extremely dangerous place, even for seasoned champions. Many have perished on their search for El Dorado. So while you may be allowed to take whoever you want with you, I must also add that whoever you take will be under your direct responsibility, and so if something happens to them—and statistically speaking, they will most likely perish—it will be your fault."

"That's not fair," Serena said.

"Nobody said it was," Cynthia replied.

"Well that doesn't matter, because I—we, need to go. Ash, please let us go with you, we'll take care of ourselves. We have to go."

"Yeah Ash," Dawn spoke. "We have to," she said, looking at her mom in skiddo form.

Dawn then stared at Ash defiantly; she would only take yes for an answer.

"I'll go too!"

"May, why?"

"Because," May said, averting her eyes from Ash, "to be honest with you Ash, I had heard about the Golden City before, from my dad, who learned about it from Steven Stone. Look, it's obvious I'll never have an opportunity like this."

"May, you too?" Ash said looking straight at her. He felt a little betrayed.

"It may be selfish," May continued, "but please, let me go with you. I have to go."

"Then I'll go as well," Misty said.

"Misty…"

"I have to come with you, somebody has to watch all of your backs."

"Guys," Cynthia added soberly, "it seems you don't understand just how dangerous that place is. Champions who have gathered into groups have been exterminated whole by the land itself. I cannot guarantee the survival of any of you, in fact you may constitute a hindrance for Ash."

"No way," Misty said. "Nothing will happens to us if we stay together. Please Ash, you know this."

Ash thought about it quietly for a while. Truthfully he wasn't ready yet for another adventure. Physically he was fine, somehow he wasn't tired anymore. But his mind was troubled, weary and full of doubt.

"Guys, I can't stop you from coming with me. And I guess you do need to find a cure for these people."

"Alright then, I'll go to," Paul said, as he carelessly bit into one of Oak and Serena's maligned sweets. He had no idea what mistake he was making by doing that.

"Paul! Didn't you hear about ANYTHING that's happened?" Misty said. "That colorful little cake you just ingested turns people into pokemon."

"Well, crap," Paul said. And right afterwards two small but pointy ears appeared on top of his head, cream-colored on the outside, purple on the inside. Then a pair of whiskers, also cream-colored, appeared on his cheeks. "Well forgive me dude! My ears are still adjusting to silence, you know I'm fresh off a gig. I'm a professional. It was a set for a full rave, and I played it until the tent caught on flames. Now I have to go with you, and you know what, I don't care about how dangerous this place is, I'd rather die than let Ash have all of the fun, seriously. If he's going to be the one to discover some lost ancient place I'm gonna be there with him," he finished angrily. Then he scratched his right ear at the top of his head, slowly and softly. "Oh yeah, this feels nice."

"Your choice then," Cynthia said. "But that's as many of you as I'm willing to take with me."

Everyone still there started protesting audibly, mainly the Gym Leaders. But one silent stare from Cynthia was all it took to shut them all up.

"And Candice," Cynthia continued, "stop joking around and go back to Sinnoh."

Candice merely looked away, and remained silent.

There was something that Ash wanted to say, but he didn't have his words exactly figured out. He was standing among a scorched land filled with people sporting unsettling pokemon features. Smoke still emanated from the ground. Their minds were clearly tormented, the frustration, anxiety and fear were pervasive and inescapable. But when he looked around, when Ash took a moment to observe them attentively, he saw no difference between that messed up place and all the messed up places he had visited before. The ground would be cleaned, new trees would be planted. Perhaps the decay of the land would only increase and aggravate, but they would cope with it. The group would find a way to return people back to normal. And yet, another party would come, and none of them would miss it. They would all forget what horrible nightmare they had experienced, and the fear of suffering a similar, horrifying fate wouldn't cross their minds. Although perhaps they would skip the sweets, but then again they probably wouldn't. If somebody handed them a free sweet they'll only delight themselves with nonchalant glee, whilst ignoring any advice against it as well as the world around them. Perhaps life would be much easier if all people had to do was to delight themselves with a free meal. But the delight would end, it all would end and nothing would remain of them. Everything they built, all of their efforts, all of his efforts, Ash thought, would disappear. His countless badges were now collecting dust inside a box—all of them would disappear.

But as Ash kept looking around and thinking, the group that had gathered around him, his friends and old rival, all denoted an insatiable kind of hunger. Ash then realized he himself couldn't stop searching for something. Anything, it didn't matter what it was. He then remembered laying down beneath a tree with drool coming out of his lips, and the beautiful second of peace he experienced. He didn't want to go to the Sicaum Region in search for the Golden City of El Dorado, he wanted to stay on his house on the countryside by himself, with his mom, and sit beneath a tree every single day, for the rest of his life.

But his friends had to go, they had to embark on a dangerous adventure. They had to do it, for whatever reason. To correct the mistakes they'd made, to seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to take care of each other, to stop him from being the only one to experience such a thing. Or simply to spend their energies, to satisfy their hunger. Ash knew very well their hunger would never be satisfied while they were alive. Nevertheless it was impossible for him not to leave.

And so they left with Cynthia, Ash, Pikachu, four of their friends, two human turned pokemon—Oak and Johanna—and Paul, the very next morning. In spite of their exuberant youth, they were all seasoned explorers as well as notorious trainers. They knew very well what a dangerous place constituted, the same way they knew what comfortable normalcy they were leaving behind. Even with the charred surface, the smoke and its smell, as well as the strange conditions they were leaving the people with, Kanto was a blissful paradise where people could experience peace and freedom in a humane amount. The night before, when the dust settled and they were able to take a good look at themselves, their dreadful anxiety didn't let them see a way past the horrible meltdown that had been inflicted on them and the land. But just a day later things simply didn't seem so bad anymore. Being transformed into a pokemon was suddenly a novel and welcome opportunity. Life carried on, and for all of the affected party-goers and neighboring citizens, their post-celebration conditions were something to which they would get used to, as if their coffee machine broke so they had to use a manual coffee grinder. They still would get their coffee every morning, and that was that. They could only choose whether to be mad about it or not. Sooner or later—mostly later—and each and everyone of them at their own pace, they all realized, that there was no point to their static anger.

Ash looked at his trainer card once again. He felt the weight of all of his victories, all of his inductions into the hall of fame, all of his pokemon standing next to him as he lifted the trophies. All of it was written on the back of that wrinkled piece of plastic.

At that point, as Ash boarded the plane that would take him and his friends to the region where the Golden City was supposedly located, he still thought, wrongfully, that there was no real reason to keep going because everything would disappear without a trace. He would learn the truth soon, and then he would die. But he wouldn't lose his life, instead he would finally wake up.

* * *

**So this is the end of the first part of the story. I may skip a week or two before I start posting the chapters of the second part, depending of how much of it I manage to finish. But maybe I'll just continue posting it next week anyway. Thank you for reading so far, this and also my other story; thanks for reading, bye.**


	8. Part 2 Chapter 1

Part 2: Asleep In Enemy Territory

1

The reality turned out to be nothing like what was promised. What was made out to be a lovely and peaceful lake was instead a pile of mud, at which Trip and Lana were staring quietly.

After the whole debacle on Pallet Town, they started traveling together through Kanto, searching for a peaceful place to spend the little time they had left before temporarily parting ways. Soon they found a nice little valley located north of Cerulean City, and for the most part it turned out to be as charming and harmonious as it had been described to them. The trees around hid them from the outside nuisance and surrounded them in a sequestering field, opening a lovely glade that let in only the most gentle rays from the naked sun. The grass was green and soft, perfect for laying down either by oneself or with a special someone; there were myriads of flowers of many different colors embellishing the scenery. And Trip didn't want to be nitpicky about it, it was just that, as it had been described to Lana and him, the lake on that valley was supposed to be its most important aspect, as it was, for some reason, a very special lake. Trip took that to mean it would be a beautiful lake, or at least an actual lake, with water, but as it turned out it was nothing more than a big pile of mud. And the only thing that seemed remotely special about it was the little pink flower which grew right in the middle of it. It was nowhere near as striking as the rest of the flowers, it was just one little flower in the middle of the brownish moss. The rest of the place was beautiful, Lana's company was unparalleled in its blissful warmth, and the weather couldn't be more perfect for a day out. But for Trip, it was simply too difficult to ignore the petty ugliness in the middle of that place, and so the needless exasperation he suffered from it prevented him from enjoying everything else, as he should've; because he was an idiot, but at least he admitted it.

Trip closed his eyes, and tried to forget ever sighting the pile of mud by picturing only Lana's face. As he succeeded, he felt Lana rest her head on his shoulder and couldn't help but smile. Everything was so much better if he just let it go, it wasn't about focusing on ignoring the ugliness, but about focusing on himself. After all, his state of mind was only his to shape. Trip exhaled nicely and then opened his eyes, the pile of mud was still there, so he stopped smiling; he was a stubborn, neurotic fellow. There was nothing to do but to let it go again. He turned to Lana by his side and kissed her forehead, and then asked her to be his girlfriend and she said yes.

She would return to Alola and he'd go back to Unova just a day later. There seemed to be nothing more unfair than the little time they had left to be together. But it wasn't all bad. Trip would take Sandy with him to Unova, such was the certainty that they'd see each other again. In fact Trip was only going back to Unova to leave some of his pokemon with professor Juniper, so that he could get a fresh start on his Island Trial, which he'd start right after landing in Alola.

They were basking in the perfection of their plans for the future when they heard the noise. Something was flying near them, and from the sheer loudness it seemed like it could've been a plane. It was a pokemon, beating its powerful wings with such force that it managed to take Trip and Lana out of her numb bliss with the ensuing noise. They promptly looked up and managed to see an imposing figure cruising very high up through the sky. And as it passed through the clearing, right above them, the charizard blocked the sun from Trip and Lana for less than a second, during which they were fully covered in the pokemon's shadow. For even the fraction of a second it lasted it was a sight to behold. Neither of them wondered where it was heading to, nor who it belonged to. As they continued taking in each other's company while laying down on that charming valley, they didn't think about that pokemon further. They had no idea that charizard belonged to Ash.

After Charizard flew off into the sea, and out of Kanto, none of the lingering faces in my recollection remained on that picturesque region. So the action moves to the other side of the world, cruising through the same water, this time in the form of a river glistening brightly with the morning sun, was our hero Ash and his team of explorers. More specifically, they were aboard Cynthia's small but sturdy ship, one of her many. This one was particularly useful for exploration and transportation of fairly small shipments, and, with its fifty meters of length, was only considered small when comparing it to the rest of her fleet. She did have a few smaller ships in her fleet, but, as she discovered quite early in her travels through the Sicaum Region, no ordinary vessel would be able to make it through that incredibly deep and dangerous river in the middle of the jungle. The ship was actually a very large offshore vessel, colored blue on the bottom, on its hull, and green on the deck and the bridge at the top, in accordance with the scenery. It didn't really help in terms of camouflage, but it would at least add a bit of subtlety to their travels, as intended. And although that ship wouldn't serve to evade the attacks that'd be unavoidably thrown at them, even from the first moment of their arrival, it could withstand the attacks while allowing them room to strike back, as they'd have to do if they wanted to survive. For this the vessel was equipped defensively with titanium plates laminated with puncture-resistant fibers, one melded into the bow at the front which also served to ram into oncoming enemy ships, and another one at the stern. Offensively the vessel was equipped with two large and powerful crossbows on its deck, which could fire both explosive rounds as well as more incisive, single-target ones. Both weapons had already been fired numerous times, and would unavoidably be fired many more times in the future.

That nameless ship was effortlessly cutting through the water, against the current no less, thanks to its powerful state of the art engine. As Cynthia explained to Ash right after arriving in Sicaum, their first destination was the relatively peaceful city of Meripa, which was pretty much controlled by Cynthia herself as well as Steven Stone, the explorer from Hoenn. To get there they had to cruise through the Rigurea river, one of the three largest and most important—and most dangerous—rivers of the region. Ash was in the cockpit with Cynthia, he was silent and contemplative. In front of him flowed the brightest and most majestic body of water he had ever witnessed, which with its immense width and violent current seemed to want to devour him. Ash was not yet ready for another adventure, in fact at that point, as his eyes were terrified and yet he couldn't help but delight with the glistening view at the same time, he thought of his cycle of adventures; he thought it was, just like the current adventure, ultimately meaningless. He had never felt this way before. When he was still in Kanto he already felt down, and now that noticeable lack of spirit had only worsened. At least if he had stayed in Kanto he wouldn't have despaired so much, he would've only had to relax in his house, with his mom, or maybe beneath a tree nearby. But there he was, on an expedition, with a mission, across yet another dangerous place, no different from the rest.

He went out on the deck for a moment and took in the scenery. Misty was calmly staring at the water, resting her elbows on the guardrails at the edge of the ship, holding her cheeks with her hands. She seemed to be in the most cheerful mood of them all. Paul was there, right in the middle of the deck, with his purple pointy ears and his peculiar facial hair which he had fancied into a funny, cream-colored mustache. He was crouched down, and was trying to stop Johanna, Dawn's mom who had been turned into a skiddo, from biting his pants. For some reason she didn't want to let go of him. Dawn was there too, with her head down down sullenly, reluctant to look at her mom. And Serena was there too, she hadn't let go of Professor Oak, who had been turned into a herdier, for a single moment; she kept holding him tight in her arms. Ash knew May was resting below deck, she was seasick. Meanwhile, Cynthia's Lucario and Roserade were also on deck keeping an eye for any sign of danger, and Pikachu helped them from the roof of the bridge.

It seemed like Pikachu wished for danger to appear to kick off the adventure properly. For Ash, it was not easy to look at a single one of them, for various reasons, but it was the hardest to look at Pikachu. He knew he couldn't be there for him they way Pikachu wanted, not anymore. He couldn't be there for anyone, he saw no reason to be there at all.

Pikachu came down from the roof of the ship at the same time Roserade and Lucario became more alert. The three of them looked up and consequently Ash followed suit. A flock of taillow made their rounds on the sky right above the ship. And this was already peculiar given that taillow weren't really common in Sicaum. But as the ship continued its way everyone noticed that the flock continued making its rounds right above them, and then it was obvious the taillow were following them. Roserade took charge without having to wait for her trainer's orders. She raised her arms and summoned a cool breeze that quickly evolved into a big tornado, which started picking up leaves from the trees at either side of the river. The tornado then became a full-on storm which was very high up on the sky and yet its effects could be felt on deck; Serena had to hold on to her hat very tight to avoid losing it. Roserade then led the green storm over the boat, and released it right at the flock of taillow completely disrupting their flight, making them all cry loudly and beat their wings in frustration. That was more than enough to neutralize them all, and the taillow quickly dispersed in different directions.

Ash went back into the cockpit.

"What was that? Were they spying on us?" he asked Cynthia.

"Not at all," Cynthia replied. "If they wanted to spy on us, as they probably are, they'd at least try to be a little more subtle about it. No, they're sending us a message."

"Who?"

"Judging by the taillow, I'd say Wallace."

"The Hoenn League Champion?"

"Yes, he has formed an alliance with Diantha, the champion from Kalos."

"I assume they're searching for the Golden City too."

"Not quite. While they do want to find the Golden City, they wish to use whatever they find here to stop all the fighting that happens in this region. Together they call themselves The Pacifists, and they are the least aggressive faction around, behind me and Steven I guess. We tend to avoid confrontation altogether, at least whenever it's possible."

"Oh, then maybe they sent the taillow to guard us through."

"I assure you that's not the case. They simply want us to know that they're onto us. In fact I'm sure they're already preparing an attack. Reaching Meripa won't be easy."

"But you said they were pacifists."

"I said that's what they call themselves."

"And they are the least aggressive."

"Yes. Here that's still quite aggressive, I'm afraid. The Rigurea river separates Meripa from the city of Cataeus, where they have their base of operations. Because of that we are forced to face them rather often. All because they are the closest to us."

"How many enemies do you have?"

"There are a few clear factions. Besides Wallace and Diantha, there's Lance, the natives; Alder is here somewhere; I'm pretty sure he's still alive. There are others as well, but if you want me to tell you the truth, Ash, every single person on the region is my enemy. Don't get me wrong, I trust you, but trust is a fragile thing. We have to make sure to take good care of it, Ash. Everyone who knows about this place is already here, and they all want the same thing. And the promise of unlimited power and fortune will make anyone into a traitor and a liar."

"But I don't want unlimited power and fortune."

"Good. Make sure you keep it that way. Don't let any alluring idea change your mind."

Ash nodded slightly although Cynthia didn't notice, she was too busy handling the helm of the ship. Everything had become very complicated and difficult all of the sudden. Crossing the river and reaching Meripa constituted only the first step of the plan. They had to find Professor Copal, who could hopefully enlighten them about the condition of those who ingested Oak and Serena's sweets and subsequently gained pokemon features, if they weren't outright turned into pokemon as a result. And then there was also the Golden City, which May wished to find more than any of them. Meanwhile Ash wasn't particularly desperate to begin searching for it.

"See, I told you," Cynthia said all of the sudden. "They're already waiting for us."

She pointed forward with her right hand in a very ominous manner. Effectively another ship was heading towards them, a comparatively smaller tugboat moving with the current. A man was standing right on its front striking a sort of heroic posse, with his foot at the edge of the bow and his arms crossed. He was wearing a suit of armor, though he had his face uncovered which allowed a cheeky smile to show. He was in fact Wikstrom, of the Kalos Elite 4 which was commanded by Diantha, and his smile, and the smoldering look of his blue eyes, which he practiced every morning in front of his bathroom mirror, were both directed at Cynthia. Next to him was a man with a streak of red hair on top of his otherwise bald head. He was crouching, hunched, and the smile on his face seemed much more wicked than Wikstrom's, although, Sidney, the man who was crouching, didn't actually mean for his wicked smile to come out that way; that was just his face. And at the helm of the tugboat, unseen to Cynthia and Ash was Drake, the owner of that boat. He was an old Sea Captain who liked dragons but hated wearing shirts. He and Sidney were both members of the Hoenn's Elite 4 which was commanded by Wallace.

"Hold the wheel," Cynthia said.

"What?"

Ash failed to react in time, and when he took a good look at Cynthia she had already gone out of the cockpit to fire the crossbow on the front deck. All he could think of doing was to hold on to the steering wheel very tight, although the wheel was completely rigid, and by itself didn't move at all. He had a very good view of Cynthia as she loaded the crossbow with explosive ammunition and then fired it right at Wikstrom. The missile was shot with a thunderous noise that was harrowing to the ear, and came out with such force that it left no time for any kind of reaction, at least not from Ash. It exploded at contact, making an even more distressing noise which also lasted longer. Abundant smoke covered the incoming enemy boat for a few seconds, and when it started to clear a floating figure became apparent. A few anxious seconds later the smoke finally disappeared; the atmosphere had become so tense all of the sudden that the wait was almost unbearable. Right in front of the boat, floating in the air was Wikstrom's feared Aegislash. While in shield form, it had taken the entirety of the hit and was still standing, in fact its golden shield seemed as pristine and shiny as if it had just been made. There was a moment of silence where Cynthia didn't move. The apparent futility of her attack took her by surprise. But then, right after the mild shock passed, she hurried to reload the crossbow.

"Halt! Have you no right mind?" Wikstrom shouted with a purposefully imposing tone. "We want you alive Cynthia!"

"Is that so?" Cynthia replied. "You want me alive huh. Well I'll take you either dead or away from me, whichever one suits you better today."

Once again she fired at Wikstrom. Aegislash took the full hit and ensuing explosion and remained unmoved.

Cynthia grunted angrily and ran back into the cockpit. Ash managed to react in time to get out of her way.

"They resist a few hits and think they can get me? That's cute. And it doesn't matter, let's ram those idiots out of the way." She attempted to accelerate but the ship didn't respond. She tried again with an angry grunt, but instead of accelerating the ship seemed to lose power, and that's when Wikstrom released a boisterous laugh which both Ash and Cynthia heard well, too well.

May, out of all people went into the cockpit. Any trace of sleepiness she might have had was completely gone, what's more she was visibly worried.

"There's a problem with the ship. The propeller seems to be stuck."

Then Dawn came in, also visibly distressed.

"Something's swimming below us, something big."

Suddenly the floor started shaking as some loud, metallic noises were heard. Something was clearly hitting the bottom of the ship, which then lost all of its power and started being dragged by the current. Then that something emerged from the water showed itself. It was a walrein, big and vicious, with a pair of eyes that seemed to scream for blood. A giant pair of fangs on its open mouth were an equally effective source of intimidation.

"Glacia," Cynthia said in clear lament. She was referring to the member of the Hoenn Elite 4 who specialized in ice types, Glacia, to whom the walrein belonged. "It must've frozen the propellers!"

"What do we do now?" asked Paul. And by then everyone on board was expectant for an answer.

"…We take them down," Cynthia replied decisively. Then she went back to the crossbow.

"Leave the walrein to me," said Misty. Then she went to the back of the deck and called Gyarados out. Her pokemon instantly appeared in the water alert and ready. It was easy for Gyarados to swim even with the violent current. His objective was to hound out the walrein as Misty gave orders from the deck. Meanwhile Cynthia kept firing explosive rounds at Aegislash, and she didn't back down until the metallic pokemon shrieked and faltered, at which point Wikstrom shamelessly called it back.

"Heathen! And you say you wage war for peace. Has thou no honor?"

"You shameless hypocrite," was Cynthia's reply at Wikstrom's insolence. She readied the crossbow again.

Wikstrom shouted in defeat for a bit, his tone of voice had the perfect theatricality for it. He tagged in Drake, who then showed himself on deck, shirtless. Now the tugboat seemed to be chasing Cynthia's ship as it was being dragged by the current.

With Drake came his Salamence flying fast and aggressive. Cynthia's eyes opened wide and she aimed the weapon at the dragon suddenly roaming the sky. She fired and missed, the Salamence was too fast in spite of its considerable size. After yet another miss from Cynthia, Drake silently pointed at her with a heavy stare, and his pokemon understood his command all too well. Salamence headed for the Sinnoh Champion and easily grabbed her, and immobilized her by holding her arms open, one with each claw from its forelimbs, so that all Cynthia could do was to rage and scream and kick the air. This mode of grabbing her also allowed Salamence to use Cynthia as a shield, so that both Lucario and Roserade could only watch sorrowfully from the ship, unable to attack for fear of hitting their trainer. Even after being told to be as ruthless as it was demanded of them numerous times, by Cynthia herself, her pokemon simply couldn't risk hurting her in that moment. Salamence took her high into the sky as the enemy tugboat accelerated and got closer to Cynthia's ship. Depressed or not Ash knew he had to do something, though ideas escaped him at the moment.

When the bows of both vessels were close enough, as they moved with the current, Sidney used the opportunity to jump into Cynthia's ship, and when he landed in style, with a nice body roll, he smiled and called his favorite pokemon out, Absol. Together they walked into the cockpit confidently. Sidney had his hands in his pockets and a pleased smile on his face which looked mischievous, though in this case it was a voluntary gesture.

"Just admit it," he said out loud, "for whatever reason you prefer, we're all after the treasure."

But then he actually looked around, and saw Ash and company standing there, with a Blaziken, a Pikachu and a Sceptile, which was the only pokemon other than Pikachu that Ash had brought with him from Kanto. Although he had called others. But anyway, for Sidney that was a totally unexpected sight, and just as unfortunate for him.

"Oh, crap."

He started walking backwards, and after taking a good look at Blaziken, Absol instinctively followed. They were stopped on their tracks by Lucario.

Sidney accurately predicted the outcome of that situation.

"Nevermind," he said, half-jokingly; knowing he was doomed, he hoped for a miraculous escape. "Excuse my intrusion, I meant to jump into another boat. I'll get out of your hair."

Two attacks sufficed to faint Absol. Sidney was quickly tied down with a rope proportioned by Lucario.

Meanwhile Cynthia was taken by Salamence into the enemy boat, which was still so close to the ship that both bows were almost touching.

Dawn went over to the bow to face Drake.

"We have your partner! Let Cynthia go and we'll release him," she said with the most aggressive tone she could bring forth, which still came out with her regular high-pitched voice.

"No thanks," Drake grumbled. "He's all yours."

Sidney was tied down inside the cockpit, he heard Drake very well. Even though he was disappointed he wasn't surprised, nor offended; he knew he didn't have the right to be either of those things, and of course he would've done the same.

Meanwhile on the water Gyarados struggled to land a single hit on Walrein. As soon as her pokemon submerged Misty discovered the river was infested with countless carvanha, and every single one of them was ruthlessly aggressive. Added to that was the overwhelming force of the current which made it particularly hard for Gyarados to avoid Walrein's merciless ice attacks. They might both be half-water types, but Walrein's Ice had a clear advantage over Gyarados Flying. Gyarados' only advantage was the presence of his trainer there, her guidance. Misty was indeed another pair of eyes to instruct her pokemon's movements other than Gyarados' own. She advised exactly when to dive deep to avoid a mean Ice Beam from Walrein, when to twist the tail and roll underwater to get in a better position as well as the right moment to strike. Her battle became even more complicated when Walrein used the move Aqua Ring, which would periodically restore its health for a while and so the beast became harder to take down, added to it being already harder to even hit a single time because of the conditions of that battleground. It was obvious that Walrein had already become acquainted with the land and all its hardships, and was a smart pokemon on its own. It was a fine opponent, but not an unbeatable one. After evading yet another Ice Beam Misty perceived a small, fleeting window to strike, and immediately ordered Gyarados to use Crunch for massive damage. Gyarados dashed against the current, visibly cutting the water on its way, Walrein was open and defenseless, so much that Gyarados's fangs shone for just a second; it was simply because Gyarados was desperate to finally land a decent hit on Walrein. Unfortunately before those shiny fangs could pierce through Walrein's blue fat some carvanha got in the way and the window was then lost. Paul and Dawn witnessed the miss, and all they could do was to feel helpless. The pokemon that they'd brought with themselves were either too heavy to be effective in those conditions or unable to fight properly on water; more specifically on that wild river. They'd been told to take with them only their strongest, and yet no one bothered to mention the specifics of the road to their destination. The extreme impotence they felt was so excruciating that it physically pained them.

Right then a smaller but very powerful boat appeared cutting through the current. Glacia was at the helm, she had a conceited smile on her pale face hit by the sun. That boat was fast enough to circle around both Cynthia's ship and the enemy tugboat even as they moved. Glacia then slowed down and aligned her small boat besides the enemy tugboat. Wikstrom appeared on the deck again holding an immobilized Cynthia.

"Apologies comrade! We must part at once!" Wikstrom shouted. A tied-up Sidney lamented himself on the floor of Cynthia's ship. Afterwards Wikstrom jumped into the smaller boat with Cynthia, and before Ash and company could turn their focus towards them, a harpoon was shot from the tugboat right at Cynthia's ship. It hit exactly at the part of the bow right behind the titanium plate, piercing through the weaker metal. The harpoon was tied to the tugboat, the engine of which was then turned off. Drake who had shot the harpoon then showed himself on deck, with a pleased grin fed by his good aim. He gave Ash and company a sarcastic salute with his right arm and then jumped into the smaller boat too. Once he landed Glacia accelerated against the current, and left behind the two larger ships tied together at the mercy of the violent current.


	9. Part 2 Chapter 2

2

Cynthia had been captured by one of her many enemies, the guys were adrift, with their ship being dragged against the current, with its engine frozen, and with a useless tugboat tied to it, dragging them further and damaging the ship even more.

"What are we gonna do?" cried Paul. And for a few tense seconds no one answered.

"We have to save Cynthia," Ash said.

"And how are we going to do that? Their boat is faster and ours doesn't work."

"But theirs is way smaller, ours can endure more. We just need to find a way to untie the other boat and get the engine going."

"You better do it fast," Sydney said from the ground, still tied up. "The tugboat has a bomb that will go off soon."

"Yeah right," Paul said. "You're just messing with us."

"Fine, ignore me. But why do you think they tied the tugboat to your ship when your engine already didn't work? They only need Cynthia alive, as for the rest of you."

"But they wouldn't kill us," Misty said with an endearingly hopeful tone.

"Yes they would. They will, actually. Welcome to the region, and goodbye."

Sidney's words brought about a heavy silence. Everyone was forced to acknowledge the notion of a lethal danger that seemed inescapable.

"Big deal," Paul said, "we just have to take out the harpoon."

"I'm afraid that's a terrible idea." Out of nowhere, Herdier Oak spoke with his regular voice. "If you take it out perhaps the ship won't explode, but it will sink instead."

"So we cut the rope that is tying the two ships together," Serena said.

"Yeah, that's what others did a few times," Sydney added. "That's why we began using chains instead of rope. I think you'll find it a little bit difficult to break them."

Ash went to take a better look at the harpoon and chain that had both ships tied together. Every second that passed damaged their ship more and more, they were being dragged more and more with the current, further away from Cynthia, and the collective anguish soon grew to unbearable levels.

But Ash had a plan, and he knew it would work, because it had to. He called Sceptile back into his pokeball and walked to the edge of the deck, on the side from which the tugboat dragged along. The anguish, the thrill, the danger, it all would pass. It was all the same anyway. Ash looked at Pikachu, the little pokemon was ready and resolute. Ash nodded, Pikachu nodded back and then jumped to his trainer's shoulder. Ash jumped into the tugboat and everyone behind him screamed from the sudden shock. From their perspective it looked like Ash was attempting suicide but his jump was instead a carefully calculated one, and he landed safely on the tugboat. He quickly found the enemy weapon and called Sceptile out once again.

"Hey Ash!" Paul screamed from the main ship's deck. "Sydney says that it doesn't matter how powerful your attacks are, because the chain is literally unbreakable."

"Did you hear that Sceptile?" Ash said calmly. Sceptile released an earnest grunt, a very serious, cold grunt. "Why don't you show them how wrong they are?"

Sceptile lifted his open right hand, which then morphed into a long blade shining with a very bright green glow. Sceptile lifted his hand further and then, with a much more aggressive grunt he released his blade upon the enemy crossbow, shattering it whole instantly and releasing the chain from the ship.

Everyone still on the main deck was bewildered, the tugboat was released and was slowly left adrift.

"Oh no, what do we do now?" Serena said. "We have to get them back on the ship!"

Before anyone on deck could think of what to do Ash called to Gyarados for help. He called Sceptile back into his pokeball and then, along with Pikachu he jumped out of the boat. For a moment, while Ash was still on the air, between the boat that could explode at any second and the pokemon that could save him, he remembered the thrill of uncertainty. Doubt was an unpleasant condition, the state of uncertainty was probably the only one from which fear was produced, in one way or another. For Ash, there was no better state of uncertainty, not another one that could give him a pleasurable rush of adrenaline, than the uncertainty of his survival. That's why he had done it so many times, that's why he was there. It wasn't enough, of course, not by far, but it was something. He lifted his arms and arched his left leg backward as he kept his right leg forward to push himself to Gyarados, and tasted the cool breeze produced by the violent current of the river as he defied gravity for just a second. He landed safely on top of Gyarados and the tugboat was left behind.

"Hey Ash! Gyarados is my pokemon," Misty shouted from Cynthia's boat, "I'm the only one who's allowed to send him to your rescue."

"It's not my fault if he listens to me better," Ash replied. And everyone could notice that distinct shine on his face, which didn't seem to be there beforehand.

May noticed it well, and it had a profound effect on her. She called to her Blaziken and headed for the stern.

Then she jumped into the river and Blaziken followed her bravely. Everyone screamed in fear once again, this time including Ash.

Immediately after submerging May was struck by the current. She was shocked by how violently she was pushed backwards. Blaziken went to save her and she courageously held on to him. She attached herself to his back and put her arms and legs around his chest, and Blaziken started swimming against the current. It was extremely difficult, especially for a fire type, but Blaziken reached the stern of the boat in spite of the many dangers and then submerged, like he knew his trainer wanted. May forced herself to open her eyes underwater, with a painful effort she found the propeller and pointed at it. Pokemon and trainer were incredibly alike, and after sharing so many adventures together they basically had the same mind. Blaziken knew exactly what May wanted. Right then, as he swam against the current with his trainer on his back, unable to breath, with myriads of dangerous pokemon already on their way to attack him, he had to summon all of the courage he had just to avoid fainting. Blaziken reached the propellers, it was his moment to succeed or die and the task at hand was a particularly impossible one. Without first taking a triggering breath, Blaziken released a powerful flamethrower underwater right at the frozen propellers. He had to take particular care not to breathe through his nostrils, it was a daunting task altogether. And his attack served pretty much only to heat the water, no fire was produced, but it was all that was needed to defrost the propellers. Blaziken didn't stop his attack until all the ice had melted, and then both he and May lost consciousness and were dragged by the current.

Luckily for both of them Ash was very focused on their endeavors, and they were easily saved by Gyarados, who then took all of them back to the ship, which then resumed working.

Right then May opened her eyes, slowly, the abundant light blinded her at first. The first thing that she saw clearly was Ash standing straight, looking up with a smile on his face, his hands on his hips, really wet but completely unbothered by it. She knew immediately that he had saved her, and this realization had a profound effect on her. Ash then noticed her coming back into herself and looked at her attentively, and this made May's insides revolt even more. And she couldn't stop looking at him.

"May! Are you okay?"

May was technically fine, nevertheless she couldn't respond. So Ash asked again and she forced herself to react.

"Um, yes, yes I am okay," she replied. "Thank you for saving me."

"Dang it!" Paul exclaimed. "Why does Ash keep doing stuff like that? While I'm here doing nothing!"

"Don't sweat it Paul," Ash said once he was back on deck, seemingly fine, calm and collected.

"But I want to sweat it Ash," Paul continued. "Don't you understand? You'll see, before we leave here, if we actually get to leave, I'll do something much cooler than the coolest thing you've ever done."

"Great, I can't wait."

"Okay, there's no need to be sarcastic."

"What? I'm not being sarcastic."

The tugboat exploded well behind them. They didn't feel any pressure coming from it, it was that far already. But if it had blown up just a few minutes earlier things would've been much, much different.

"Oh crap! Sydney wasn't lying?" Paul exclaimed.

"Of course I wasn't," Sydney said, still tied up. "I… we… are serious. And you have to take this seriously too: look at how quickly they left me for dead just to get Cynthia. At the very least they left some time in the bomb timer to give me a chance to escape, like they knew I could."

"Oh yeah, and why haven't you escaped?"

"Because these two pokemon haven't taken their eyes off of me." Sydney was referring to Lucario and Roserade, who were indeed staring at him quite gravely.

"And they won't take their eyes off of you, not until we get Cynthia back. Full speed ahead!" Ash said.

"What?" said Paul confused.

It took them a second to react, but Ash's energy got them right back in the moment. After a collective rousing shout the ship was chasing down the enemy boat at full speed. Power-wise Glacia's small boat had nothing on Cynthia's ship. Also Glacia's boat didn't have room for a lot of fuel, meanwhile Cynthia's ship wasn't carrying any heavy cargo and so it could go faster. It was as if the vessel itself was eager to get its owner back, just like the people on board wanted their captain back. The team's righteous rage seemed to be fueling the ship's travel, and very soon they caught up to the enemy boat which was barely moving against the violent current.

The sorry members of the Elite 4 were barely moving because their plan was flawed. They meant to get Cynthia to Cataeus, the small city occupied by Diantha and Wallace. And they wanted to get back there by first transferring to the Equfune river, the second largest river on the region, which would then take them back to Cataeus, which was actually located south of Meripa. In theory, Cataeus could be reached easily by sailing down with the Rigurea current, instead of going against it like they were trying to do. Sadly, for the merciless captors at least, they couldn't take the direct route back to their city because Cynthia's people from Meripa would easily intercept them if they did, and so they had to circle around the area, and transfer to another river in order to reach their destination. But as it turned out they didn't even have enough fuel to get out of the Rigurea river and take the Equfune counterpart. And so Cynthia's ship loomed nearer and nearer as the Elite 4 members became more and more desperate.

Ash and company caught up to them on board of the giant ship, at least comparatively speaking. And in front of them Glacia's boat seemed to lose power, as if the boat itself had frozen in fear.

"We have to slow down," Dawn said, "otherwise we'll crash into them and hurt Cynthia."

Ash agreed, he grabbed the accelerator and meant to slow down, however Lucario moved his hand away and instead increased speed.

"What are you doing Lucario? You're going to hurt Cynthia, we need to slow down!" Ash exclaimed, as he tried to take the pokemon's hand away.

But Lucario didn't give anything away and instead remained firm and resolute with his hand on the controls. Roserade went by his side and then looked at the worried group, and nodded decisively, reassuring them that they knew what they were doing, and that they had been on the region for far longer than any of them; that they had to do something, no matter how ruthless, to make up for their passivity so far; that deep down they were completely sure that their trainer, none other than the Supreme Champion of Sinnoh, Cynthia, would be just fine regardless of what happened. Or at least that's what they wanted to convey, but in reality even the pokemon were savvy enough to know that Cynthia preferred to be hurt, or even killed, instead of getting captured by the enemy, whichever enemy; that didn't matter.

So the titanium plates plowed through the enemy boat, broke it in half and then into a million pieces, and basically disappeared it after just a few seconds. However, everyone on board managed to jump out before the impact could destroy their bodies completely.

Wikstrom and Glacia appeared on the water near the riverbank on top of Walrein. They were both soaked and agitated, Wikstrom especially had trouble making even the lightest movements and had a carvanha stuck to his right leg covered in metal.

"This is madness! You mindless idiots, you wish to kill us all!" Wikstrom shouted indignant.

"Man, you are a hypocrite," Cynthia said behind him. She was furtively holding on to Walrein, having survived the crash mostly unscathed. Before Wikstrom could finish believing her survival she unceremoniously pushed him off of Walrein and the current instantly carried him away with his heavy armor. She then grabbed a good chunk of Walrein's hair from its nape with one hand, restraining the pokemon's movements to her will, and then put Glacia in an asphyxiating arm-lock with her other arm, then she smiled, and forced Glacia's pokemon to make its way towards the ship while everyone witnessing her marveled openly. That's when Salamence appeared, with Drake riding on top of it.

The ship slowed down so the subdued Walrein could follow along, meanwhile Drake and Salamence went for Cynthia once more. The dragon released a Fire Blast which Walrein stopped completely with an Ice Beam.

"What are you doing you idiot?" Drake shouted at Walrein. "You're supposed to help me!"

"Apparently that doesn't matter to Walrein once its own well-being is on the line," Cynthia said.

"Nonsense!" Drake shouted, and then ordered another attack from Salamence. This time the dragon released a powerful beam made out of greenish smoke. Cynthia told Walrein to attack but the pokemon hesitated, and so the three of them, including Glacia, received the Dragonbreath in full. Salamence headed for them like a projectile and showed Cynthia its sharp claws while roaring loudly.

"I'll take you to Cataeus myself!" Drake roared like his pokemon as it headed straight down to get her. But then a giant Thunder from Pikachu got in the way, and stopped their downward lunge altogether.

"You stupid child," Drake said to Ash, "do you have any idea of what you're messing with?"

"Not really," Ash replied on deck, "and to tell you the truth I don't really care. But you're not going to hurt my friends, that much I know."

"Then I'll hurt you!"

Drake launched himself and Salamence for a strike against Ash, the dragon enthusiast was blind with rage. And because of this both him and his pokemon greatly underestimated their opponents' prowess. They were used to completely obliterating their enemies in a moment's notice, and had done so many times, both before and after arriving in Sicaum. But it was when he decided to attack Ash Ketchum while he was surrounded by his friends, that his violent streak ended, and with this, it was finally announced that the hero and his team had arrived. There was a Thunder, there was a Hydro-Pump, a Flamethrower, both a Leaf Storm and a Solar Beam, as well as an Aura Sphere coming from Lucario, and every single one of the attacks was on target. Salamence arrived fainted on deck just from the sheer force of its launch. Drake fell along with his pokemon and got a good landing hit on his back. He quickly surrendered and was tied up as well.

Then Lucario descended the life boat so that Cynthia could get on board, and so Glacia was taken as a prisoner too. It was all well and they were all safe on board, the rescue mission had been successful in spite of its sudden recklessness. What none of them knew, however, was that while they were distracted, Sidney had managed to untie himself, and, as he knew that if they caught him it would be over for him, he chose to act purely on instinct, wielding a knife which he previously had very well hidden on himself. He sneaked behind Dawn and put his arm around her, and with his other arm led the knife to her throat.

"It's over!" he shouted as the sudden anxiety overwhelmed him. "Turn the ship around and lead us directly to Cataeus if you want to keep her in one piece."

"It's over, so there's no need for more violence," Cynthia replied, trying to remain calm. Everyone else was suddenly worried, so much so that they couldn't speak. "I understand things look bad, but it'll get much worse for you if you do anything to her. Just let Dawn go and everything will be fine."

"Spare me of your lies! You think I won't leave blood on my trail?" Sidney said, reaching the shining blade to Dawn's skin. "You'll feel my own destruction, it'll leave a stain that you won't be able to wash off."

"We're not like you maniacs. You say you want to help, but only resort to senseless violence. Your group cannot eradicate evil by enacting more evil. That's why you're nervous, because you know what Wallace and Diantha do to prisoners, all of this while calling themselves pacifists. We're not like them."

"You can't fool me Cynthia. You can't fool any of them for long. They will see your true nature sooner or later."

"Stop."

"Never!"

"I'm not like you," Cynthia said.

"Yes you are, we are the same!" Sidney exclaimed, covered in sweat. "All of us! We're all here because of a promise, another level of existence, a life without needs, only pleasure and comfort. That's why I'm here. Why else would I have left Hoenn? Look at me, I can't smile without looking like a creep. Do you think this is how I wanted to look? Of course not, not ever, but then, in the dark I found my style. I belong among the dark pokemon at the top of my ivory tower. I should've stayed there, I shouldn't have come here. Why couldn't I stay?"

"You can go back."

"Please don't lie to me Cynthia."

"I'm not lying."

"Yes you are! Why does everyone lie all the time? Is it funny to you, to torture me like this? Well I won't take it anymore."

"Please, Sidney, let Dawn go."

"Shut up. It's too late, this chance is all I have left. It will be a long time before you see your friend safe again. Let this be the end of our journey."

"I won't let you hurt my friends," Ash exclaimed. He wanted to sound firm and commanding, but he was too worried to succeed.

"Get away from me! I will cut her! I will make an example of her cheek if I need to."

"Wait!" Serena cried. "Please let her go, I'll take her place."

Everyone protested but Serena stepped forward. She let Herdier Oak on the ground amidst its canine protests, and then walked towards Sidney slowly and with her hands up.

"Good, I'll take two hostages, and if you don't direct this ship to Cataeus I'm going to hurt the two of them."

"Paul! Now!" Serena shouted. And Paul jumped from the roof of the bridge, right on top of Sidney.

"Dj-Ressentiment!" he shouted as he came down upon Sidney, hurting his own neck pretty bad but also cracking Sidney's back so hard he couldn't help but lose track of his whole body, and both Dawn and Serena seized the opportunity and ran to the safety of the group. Sidney was hurt and his knife was out of his hand, and so he remained on the ground. He knew there was no point in getting up.

It was over.

"That was some quick thinking guys," Ash said as he gathered around with everyone, after they had fully secured all of their new prisoners, "good job Paul and Serena."

"Don't worry Ash, you'll get your chance to be the hero again," Paul replied while rubbing the back of his head. "Don't be mad just because I stole your thunder for a bit."

"I'm not mad, you guys were great, honestly you were pretty heroic."

"Yeah right, it's probably killing you from the inside. You know, just thinking that you weren't the only hero today. I bet you hate having to share the spotlight, you're such a diva."

Paul was quite proud of himself, unlike Serena who merely felt like she had done something right for once. She couldn't look at Ash in the eyes as he was complimenting her. Herdier Oak went over to her.

"You did good Serena," he said with his regular voice, which was a bit jarring considering it came out of his pokemon body, "but you don't have to feel like you owe anyone anything. What happened was not your fault. You have to stop blaming yourself."

"Thanks professor. But I disagree, it was definitely my fault. I wish I had been turned into a pokemon too at least. It would've served me well."

"But the professor is right Serena," Dawn added. "What happened was just an accident, and we're going to fix it together. You're a good person, you've just saved my life. Thank you."

"Hey, what about me?" Paul interjected. "I also saved your life."

"Oh yeah," Dawn continued with a decidedly less interested tone, "thanks Paul. But anyway, seriously don't worry Serena, we're going to find a way to fix this. Besides, my mom doesn't really mind being a skiddo for a little bit. Actually I think the experience will give her a new perspective, which she really needs. Isn't that right mom?"

Dawn looked down at her oblivious pokemon mom, but then once she got a good look at her pokemon body she immediately became uncomfortable. Johanna-Skiddo just stood there, she seemed kind of angry after the question, but replied neutrally with a loud bleat. Dawn hadn't gotten used to seeing her mom like that, and in that moment Johanna was the last person-pokemon she wanted to see. There she was, in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by unbridled nature, free from civilization, Dawn was seemingly free from everything and everyone she knew. And yet the presence of her mother loomed over her every thought, she could hear her commanding voice even though Johanna-Skiddo was unable to talk, unlike Herdier Oak.

"You can start searching for Professor Copal once we reach Meripa," Cynthia said. "I think the remainder of the trip will be peaceful, and we're rather close. For now I want to thank you all from coming to my rescue. I would've advised you to ignore me and head to Meripa on your own, but you came for me. It was dangerous, but it worked."

"I knew it would work, and we don't leave anyone behind," Ash said.

"Things won't be as simple as they were today Ash, and there are far more competent enemies than Wikstrom and the rest. You may have to make difficult choices on your journey. I know I have."

Cynthia's words struck Ash like a boulder on his head. He suddenly lost all of the enthusiasm that he had gained from the earlier adventure, and then he was left silent and contemplative once more. The thought that he couldn't save everyone, that any plan could somehow fail, greatly bothered him. It kept bothering his mind, perpetually, as he found no solution for it. For the first time ever he regretted his rushed style of making decisions. He thought it had been a bad idea to have gone to that dangerous region at all, he thought this right when he was deep within it and with no clear way out.


	10. Part 2 Chapter 3

3

Cynthia's ship continued cutting through the violent current of the Rigurea River, now with a harpoon and a chain struck to its bow. Ash went to the front deck to look at it. That piercing piece of metal was a dire warning. Functionally speaking the harpoon didn't affect the ship at all; of course it would have to be fixed, but it was at least a cool battle scar for the time being. Nevertheless it made him afraid, and Ash thought the fear would overwhelm him to the point of no return if he didn't do anything. Many a time the fear of losing a match had motivated him to push himself and his team through their limits and ultimately come out victorious. But that was the good kind of fear, the inspiring kind. At the moment he was suffering from the bad kind of fear, the paralyzing one. He tried to psych himself up, there was much to be done, and many more dangers would be encountered. If he had to go through yet another dangerous adventure on uncharted territory, then he would finish it off as quickly as he could so as to avoid as many problems as possible. Right then Ash resolved to hurry up and get out of there; because, deep down, and perhaps this was the reason he was so afraid, none of that mattered to him, not really.

Ash was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the bifurcation up ahead. The river separated into two branches, the main one which was the largest and most violent one, and the small one through which the ship barely fit, which was the one they went through, with ease, thanks to the ship's powerful engine. Not long after leaving the main branch of the river the ship went into a large cave hidden within a rather dense part of the forest. The remaining light from the outside was soon left behind, but it never became dark inside the cave, as the rocky roof and walls were filled with many luminous spots of different colors, mostly pink and green. Cynthia explained to the amazed group that all of those spots were some sort of special fungus which grew on that region, and so there was plenty of light on the cave, and a rather beautiful sight at that. That branch of the river reached its end, and opened into a sort of lake where the water was still. Cynthia explained that that peaceful body of water was the perfect bay for her ships, some of which were anchored there; some were smaller, one or two were bigger; most of them had weapons installed on them.

After a soothing moment standing still on that subterranean water, Cynthia anchored the ship and the group continued their way through the cave on foot. Ash was able to take a closer look at the luminous mushrooms found all over the cave, which were smooth and springy to the touch and seemed to shine brighter for a few seconds after contact. The walk gave Ash a quiet moment in which to rest for a minute. He lagged behind his talkative friends, including Pikachu, and the momentary silence reminded him of that blissful time laying down under the tree back on Pallet Town. He couldn't help but wish to be back there again, but at the same time that nice, psychedelic walk was blissful enough on its own. Sadly for Ash they reached the exit rather quickly, and after coming out into the light once more they all found themselves on one side of a giant ravine. Right beneath them was what used to be yet another body of water, a confluence of streams which was no more, and in its demise had left a vast emptiness as well as a long fall into sharp rocks at the bottom. In front of them stood the other side, a giant rock wall that stretched to both sides as far as they could see, so not only was the ravine very deep, but very long as well.

The path ended in a firm cliff which protruded past the rock wall on their side, so everyone could see the giant rock on which they were standing, the one from their side which was just as large and imposing as the rock wall opposite to them. However it was hard for them to focus on admiring the scenery, and all they could really think right about then was that there was no road left to continue.

"Now what?" Paul said with an acutely obnoxious tone.

Instead of answering him, Cynthia took out a flashlight and directed it at the other side of the ravine, then she turned it on and off three times. Truthfully, Cynthia didn't like Paul very much, truthfully, he was easy to hate, and he knew it. In some weird way Paul enjoyed annoying other people, and during this adventure he was particularly angry, mostly because of the pokemon features that he had gained as a result of eating one of Oak and Serena's cakes, so his irritating nature was at its most strident stage.

So Cynthia was rather keen on shutting Paul up. She succeeded once her signal was received and from the other side was fired yet another harpoon, which struck right above the group, scaring all of them but Cynthia, who smiled knowingly. A second harpoon was then shot, and that one landed right below them. This time those harpoons were tied to regular rope, which was still very resistant; they had hit in such a calculated way that the two ropes ran exactly parallel to each other, one going right below the other, effectively granting them a safe, if a little demanding way to cross the ravine.

One by one the explorers tied themselves from the hip to the upper rope with some more rope and a harness that Cynthia proportioned for each of them. And then they started crossing the ravine, balancing their feet on the lower rope and holding very firmly on to the upper one with their hands, tending to always have one hand on the upper rope and both feet on the lower one, while also tending not to look below them, into the hazy crevasse. Cynthia waited until everyone else had crossed to do so herself, and from the rest Serena was the last one to get on the rope. She was very nervous and didn't want to do it. And what made things worse for her, was that Ash hadn't told her anything, hadn't given her a single word of encouragement like he used to do whenever they were together and she happened to feel scared or anxious. He seemed to have completely forgotten about her, and in that moment Ash looked like an empty shell of himself, even as he crossed the bridge without an issue. Luckily for Serena, Herdier Oak was there standing eagerly right in front of her, looking at her and waving his tail while doing so.

"You can do this Serena, I have faith in you," he said soberly, and his words were exactly what Serena needed. She put on a special backpack that she had taken with her on that trip. She put it on her chest instead of on her back and then placed Herdier Oak safely on it. Then she went for it. As she pushed forward, she focused on the rope so intensely that the rest of the world disappeared around her. She was basically suspended in the air, there was nothing below or above her, nothing to either side of her except that rope. Neither the future nor the past existed, just that rope, her arms and legs and Herdier Oak. That's all she cared for, all her eyes could look at, as such, she felt weirdly safe, and it was actually quite easy for her to cross as a result.

Serena landed safely on the other side of the ravine, she took a deep breath to relieve all of the stress and anxiety, Ash gave her a soft smile and thumbs up, and she remembered that she was crazy about him.

Aaron, bug-type specialist, member of the Sinnoh Elite 4 and therefore Cynthia's underling, and a loyal one at that, met them on the other side. He was the one who had proportioned the bridge for them to cross. Usually he was an upbeat and easygoing guy, but this time for some reason he seemed morose and rather serious, and so he didn't say much as they continued through another underground cave on their way to Meripa.

After getting out of the second cave they found themselves deep within the jungle once more. On that side there were plenty of luminous mushrooms like the ones found earlier, which also seemed to shine brighter when the guys touched them. Ash once more lagged behind, while the rest walked and talked full of energy and Cynthia advised them not to stray from the delineated path, as the ground was full of gravely poisonous plants. There was something special about that place, Ash could feel it. It seemed to be distinctly alive in a way he had never felt before, or perhaps, it was just that the silence he was experiencing allowed him to feel its life in a more sincere way. Regardless of what it was, just after a few seconds of contemplation Ash lost sight of his group, although he didn't feel lost, and he could still hear them near; besides the path was well delineated for him. As such, he didn't think it particularly urgent to run after them, so he continued his tranquil walk in silence.

As he went, with the faint trace of a smile on his face, Ash found a very big mushroom which gave off a brilliant red light. He stopped by and gave it a touch, making the mushroom shine brighter, revealing a small, shadowy figure standing on top of it. Ash's eyes were instantly directed at the shadow, he was quite startled. Beforehand he was so deep in thought, and so calm, and so distracted, that the sudden shock pretty much disconnected him from everything around him for a few seconds, and then, he was able to see the person standing on top of the mushroom clearly. It was definitely a person, and that person was half his height, and it must be added that Ash wasn't tall by any means. Whoever it was, this short person was wearing a large conical hat, from which fell a very dense net that covered its whole head, so the face wasn't visible at all. The dense net was colored white with a hint of yellow, and reached its chest at the front, and its shoulders on the sides. This person covered the rest of its body in deep greenish mossy drapes, but on his abdomen, right where its belly button should be, there was a hard-looking green hide, like a shell that should've been on the back of a pokemon instead. And that type of rugged texture also covered its hands which were also of a deep green. Whoever it was, was holding a stick which was a little bit taller than the shadowy figure itself on its right hand; the stick ended in sort of a crooked spiral and seemed to be made out of the branch of a tree.

"Do you really think you can solve anything?" the figure suddenly spoke, with a deep, gravelly voice that sounded like a gritty whisper, which felt jarring coming out of that small body. "There is nothing you can do, all of your efforts are futile while you are asleep."

Ash didn't know what to say, he couldn't think of how to react. He was so out of it, and yet he knew better than to make a rash decision, so he remained silent and confused.

"Your eyes are closed, Ash," the shadowy man on top of the mushroom said.

"Who are you?" Ash finally asked, desperate for an answer. "And who told you my name?"

"If you wish to wake up, if you wish to know the truth, you need to die."

"Why are you saying this to me?"

"Keep vigil," the shadowy man said. And then the mushroom lost its light. Ash hurried to touch it again and the brilliant red light returned but the small man wasn't there anymore. Frustrated, deeply confused and suddenly hungry for answers, Ash meant to go into the shadows, but right as he was about to dive in all by himself he was called by both Pikachu and Cynthia, and then he was found, and scolded for even trying to take a step outside of the path.

"I told you Ash, most of the plants here will harm you!" Cynthia said as a reprimand.

"There was someone here," Ash replied.

"That's impossible, we scout the surroundings constantly. Besides, it's very difficult for anyone else to reach Meripa on their own."

"But there was someone, a strange little man wearing a net over his face."

"Well, regardless, it's not a good idea to look for him like that. If he really is there, walking around like that, he's not very smart and won't get far. I'll tell my people to look for him later. Now come along and don't lag behind."

Ash looked back at the mushroom right when it lost some of its light, then he gave up and went back to the group unceremoniously. However, he couldn't stop thinking about the man and what he had said.

Next on their trip the group encountered a very tall wall that was invaded by vines, with flowers of many different colors which had grown from the ground all the way to the top. That wall was actually a very old relic from Meripa, and there was a time when it genuinely served as protection, but now, as it was one of the last remnants that still stood, and as the rest around it had fallen, it didn't serve as anything other than scenery.

"We're finally here," Cynthia said.

"Great," May said. "So how do we go in? Is there like a secret door or something?"

"No," Cynthia replied. "We simply go around it. Think of this as a big decoration. We don't really need defenses past this point. It is remarkably difficult to get all the way here, and practically impossible now with us controlling the place."

After getting past the wall they stumbled upon a much, much smaller river, barely a creek, which they were able to cross on foot with ease. Nevertheless that creek was quite important, because simply by going from one side to the other allowed them to finally catch sight of Meripa in all of its splendor. The small city looked like a green fortress, the walls of which were made of tall hedges, like those of a grass labyrinth but much taller and irregular. And the towers on the four corners were instead four giant trees, all of them centuries old, which covered the whole place in shade with their leafy tops. Inside, the city was divided in layers delineated by tall hedges laid in circles, from the outer layer in the periphery, to the innermost nucleus where there was a giant tree, the tallest one of them all. Many tall trees were also dispersed around all the layers, giving the city a very intimate atmosphere with all of the resultant shade. As Cynthia took them into the nucleus of the city the guys caught a very delicious scent in the air, which made them take notice of their empty stomachs and even made Paul's roar.

"Don't worry, we have plenty of food here," Cynthia said, "though you may have guessed that already. We're almost there anyway."

On their way, the guys encountered many growlithe and electrike roaming around in circles through every layer, either on their own or walking along with some jolly folks, citizens of Sicaum (that region), who nodded with a shy smile on their faces, without saying anything. Both people and pokemon paced around the streets very diligently. The guys found no other species of pokemon around until they reached the innermost layer at the center of the city, where many lotad appeared walking in a line, all of them carrying water on top of them.

"Did you bring all of these pokemon with you?" Misty asked.

"No. None of them," Cynthia replied. "All of the pokemon you have encountered so far were the actual occupants of this city when we found it, believe it or not. Pokemon need order too. We all need order. And they are very smart, they sensed our intentions from the get go. They realized we could help each other, there was no need for us to storm in and battle them and so we didn't have to take Meripa by force. Not that we would've anyway. Once we established ourselves here, and the pokemon realized we didn't want to cause trouble, they allowed the people from nearby villages to come so we could all protect each other. It's a beautiful testament of our shared wisdom, understanding and, honestly, our well-meaning nature. It's easy to forget that when all the power-hungry champions come to wreck havoc in search of the Golden City, and beat down on anyone who gets in their way. The people and pokemon of Sicaum are the ones paying the price. That's why this nonsense needs to stop."

"Where is Steven Stone?" May asked.

"I have no idea. That man comes and goes whenever he pleases. But don't worry about him. Let's go and see what Bertha's making."

Cynthia took everyone to a small open space near the tallest tree in the middle of the city. There was a large cauldron placed over a very much alive open fire. The cauldron was full and its contents were already boiling; it was clearly the source of the alluring scent. The plentiful dish inside was being overseen by Bertha, another member of the Sinnoh Elite 4 and Cynthia's underling. Even though Bertha was Cynthia's senior, by a rather wide margin, the difference in power was still clear. And even if that hadn't been the case—if Bertha had been stronger than her champion—she still would've chosen to serve under Cynthia, as she judged the Sinnoh Champion to be a natural leader as well as a righteous person whom Bertha clearly respected. Furthermore, Bertha knew her strengths, and was aware of where she'd be the most useful.

"Welcome everyone, dinner is ready," she said warmly.

"Dinner?" Ash replied.

"Yes, it may not be noticeable here, with all of the sequestering trees covering us from the sun, but it's getting late already. It seems the day has passed by without you noticing."

"I guess so."

"You seem awfully tired Ash, why don't you sit down? I'll serve you in a minute."

"You remember me?"

"Of course, we met back in Sinnoh a few years ago, while you were participating in the local league. Why wouldn't I remember you?" Bertha asked him with a playful tone.

"No, I'm just saying, you're a very busy person. I'm sure a lot of people come up to you and ask you to have a match with them, as I'm sure I most likely did," Ash replied with palpable embarrassment.

"Of course, that's why. It's not because you think I'm a forgetful old woman."

"No way."

"I see. Well, enough of that, as I said sit down, all of you."

No one else dared to say anything, they went to sit on the many trunk stools that were neatly arranged in a circle around the cauldron. Bertha then began to serve her delicious soup. For this she used the diligent lotad which utilized the flat surfaces on their backs to take the plates and spoons to everyone gathered, one by one. And they all began to eat, openly delighting with the exquisite flavor. As they were eating, Bertha also went around putting blankets over each of them, and for this everyone was very thankful and a bit embarrassed.

"It gets very cold at night," Bertha said, "you need to cover yourselves children."

"Thank you so much for the hospitality," May said. "I'm not sure if we count as children anymore though. I don't think this is a place for children."

"On the contrary," Bertha said, "we're all children here."

Aaron arrived looking sort of gloomy and morose and grabbed his plate. Bertha tried to put her hand on his shoulder but he shied away without looking at her. She then said his name, softly, but he didn't reply and promptly walked off alone.

"Is he okay?" Misty asked.

And then there was silence. Bertha looked at Cynthia, who sat down on the stool next to Ash and Pikachu and said nothing. It was obvious she intended to remain silent. So Bertha spoke.

"It's a sad moment for us," she said. "A few weeks ago Lucian (yet another Elite 4 member from Sinnoh) was captured by Lance while we were on an expedition. Aaron thinks we should go and save him. Of course that's what we wish to do, but, Lance's forces greatly exceed ours. Saving him just isn't possible right now."

Somewhere nearby there was a grunt. It had come from Flint, who was resting his back on a tree, with his hands on his pockets, his eyes closed, his vividly red hair puffy and alive. He was the remaining member of the Sinnoh Elite 4.

"Flint, come here and eat please," Bertha said to him.

"I'm not hungry," Flint replied adamantly.

"You need to eat," Bertha pressed. "What use are you to us weak and malnourished?"

A silent moment passed, it was a bit tense. But that last sentence from Bertha was enough to make Flint go sit on a stool, and then a lotad went and gave him a plate.

"So where is Lance anyway?" Paul asked.

"He has complete control over the city of Uquegai, which is north of the Equfune River," Bertha Said. "Uquegai is the biggest and most important city of the region of Sicaum. He and his so-called Dragon Clan had no trouble seizing it. Obviously they are after the Golden City, for whatever excuse they choose to go with, but in reality they just want riches and power. Everyone can see it. The Ghilera river, which runs right above Uquegai, is the most dangerous river of the region. It is said that The Golden City is located somewhere north of that awful river. Of course we don't know for sure, but everyone thinks so because it's the only place left to search, because of how dangerous it is to reach up there."

"I'm sure we'll have no trouble crossing it," May said with a rather light tone.

"That's the spirit," Flint replied, sarcastically.

"Lance has a whole army on his side, and even he hasn't tried it," Cynthia added.

"But we have something that no one else has," May continued, "a team, a real team. Just today we were able to defeat four Elite 4 trainers. Do you know why we were able to do that? It's because we worked like a team. They were on the same team, sure, but they didn't even speak with one another, they didn't work as a cohesive unit, and so we came out victorious."

"What you say is true, and it is very important," Bertha said. "But you got to Sicaum just today. It's better not to rush into anything with that kind of optimism if you want to last in one piece for more than a day, especially if you don't have any experience with the land."

"Also, if you're looking for Professor Copal, you won't find him anywhere near Uquegai," Cynthia said. "At least as far as I know, it was Wallace, and Diantha, who had gotten a hold of him. And they are in Cataeus, located southwest from here. Remember, Meripa is East, and is separated from Cataeus, which is West, by the Rigurea River. Both Cataeus and Meripa are separated from Uquegai by the Equfune River, located North from here. And Uquegai is separated from the zone where the Golden City is supposed to be by the Ghilera River. Basically, if you want to search for Professor Copal, you have to start by heading south. If you want to search for the Golden City, you have to start by heading north."

"Oh, I see," May said, a little bit disheartened. "But, didn't you say that Wallace and Diantha are after the Golden City too? If that's the case, then they are planning to head to the Ghilera River too."

"That's right. They are most certainly planning to do that. And as Copal is the premier regional investigator, they will most likely use him as a guide. And yet, Cataeus is so far your safest choice if you want to find him. Needless to say, I can't accompany you to either of those places."

"Why not?" Paul asked.

"It's a distraction that I don't need. Both The Dragon Clan and The Pacifists are ready for war. And then there are the natives, and by that I don't mean people. I'm talking about pokemon. Everyone is dangerous. We are by far the least numerous faction, and right now one of my men is currently captured. I'm sorry, you'll have to search for the professor on your own."

"…I'll accompany you," Flint said out of nowhere.

"We need you here," Bertha added quickly with a very earnest tone, which had lost some of her earlier warmth.

"I won't stop you," Cynthia said. Bertha looked at her somberly, but Cynthia ignored her and continued. "But you can't take anyone else with you, and you'll have to come back in less than four days. Perhaps you being so eager to go with them isn't that bad. I was the one who asked Ash to come here after all, so I am at least partially responsible for what happens to all of you here."

"Sounds good to me," Flint said in a cool way. "You clearly need me. You have less than a day here and you can't wait to venture out by yourselves. It doesn't matter how tight your team is, you'll get destroyed. Even with me your chances of survival aren't comforting. But let's focus on the most important issue right now, where the hell are you heading, North or South?"

After a brief silent pause, and plenty of inquisitive stares into each other's eyes, they all looked at Ash.

"I don't know," he said softly. "The region is big and dangerous, the professor could be anywhere and it'll be hard for us to travel. I don't know if there is a way to solve this, maybe we should just leave, and try to find another way to revert the people back to normal."

"That's not what Ash would say," Serena said. Suddenly she seemed deeply offended. "You heard me, the Ash I know wouldn't say that. He'd be very encouraging, he'd want to go out there exploring every corner of this land right now, in the middle of the night. He'd want to go searching both North and South."

"Yeah, well I said what I said, and the Ash you know, is me. And as far as I'm aware you only know one Ash. Regardless of what I say I'm still Ash, and I don't think it's a very good idea to go out there. We'd only put ourselves in danger, there's no point to it."

Serena gasped, she wanted to cry. Everyone else was equally astonished but they were more quiet about it. Meanwhile Paul had a wide smile on his hairy face. And Pikachu was the angriest of them all, the rage overwhelmed him all of the sudden. He got in front of his trainer, raised his little fist, and started shouting at Ash.

"Oh, you too?" Ash exclaimed louder. "Guess what, the world will still be out there even if you don't go out. You can't eat the world Pikachu. You can't do it. It doesn't matter how hard you try, there will always be something left, something you missed. You can try to see it all, you can take pictures of all the places you've ever been, you can treasure them, keep them close to yourself, if you want. But then, a blink later and all of those places look nothing like your pictures, they are completely different places all of the sudden, and your pictures then fade away. So why keep pictures? And memory fades too, so the only thing that matters is the present. Sure, maybe. It's important to be present, to make connections with those you care about, everlasting bonds. Except they aren't everlasting, not by a second, but nevertheless those fleeting bonds are important, I know they are. But then again, a blink later, and what is left? Please, somebody tell me what is left. After all those battles, all those victories, all those trophies that will slowly lose their shine and waste away, what is left? You know, maybe I really am asleep. Maybe I do need to…"

Ash became aware of his surroundings once more. He slowly lifted his gaze and met the eyes of everyone there, one by one. They were all staring at him with a worried expression on their faces, even Paul, who hated him.

"Um, he he. I'm sorry. Hey, it's obvious that we should go south. I mean Cynthia said it herself, and she's been here for far longer than us, I mean we've only been here a day or so. We should listen to her. Seriously, if we head north we wouldn't even know where to start, I mean who knows if the Golden City even exists, my guess is no. That said, if May wants to search for the Golden City, why shouldn't she do it? It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like she said, and honestly, why shouldn't she do what she really wants to do? Although, then that would go against what she said about us being a team. At the same time I don't think it contradicts what she said, because we would be with each other in spirit, even if we separate and pursue different goals, that's the true power of friendship, it transcends all distances, even if it doesn't last forever."

"It's okay Ash, um," May said with an awkward smile on her face. "You're right, Cataeus is our safest choice. We can search for the Golden City later."

"I think we should forget about the Golden City altogether," Dawn said earnestly. "Some of us didn't come here for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Some of us came because we needed to."

"Yes, but the important thing is that we are a team, and that we understand each other," Misty said.

"You're right," Dawn said. "I'm sorry May, I'm just tired, it's been a strange day."

"Of course, I understand," May replied. "After dinner we should get some good sleep. Tomorrow we head to Cataeus, right Ash?"

"What's that?" Ash was distracted, he barely reacted. "Um, yes, yes of course. Tomorrow…"


	11. Part 2 Chapter 4

4

The trip to Cataeus started with uncomfortable silence. At the break of dawn, the team of brave explorers headed south through the river on a state-of-the-art ship, which was designed to sparkle like water when hit by the sun, for camouflage. When the gimmick worked, the small boat looked like a seamless distortion of the water, as it did cruising with the violent current of the Rigurea River. Of course the technology wasn't perfect, and that particular, expensive design, as ordered by Cynthia, was merely another cautionary measure. They traveled to Cataeus fast and steady, this time with the aid of the current. The plan was simple, sneak into enemy territory unannounced, rescue Professor Copal, then take him to a safe place and explain the problem to solve, using Paul, Johanna-Skiddo and Herdier Oak to highlight the gravity of the situation.

Inside the boat, the atmosphere was rather tense between the team. It was going too fast for them to enjoy the trip out on the deck, so everyone was locked inside the cockpit. Most members of the team quickly found themselves not on speaking terms, and this continued in spite of Misty's considerable efforts. She eagerly wanted all of them to get along, but everyone else kind of wanted her to be quiet and let the tension remain.

Ash for his part was glad that the silence was mostly his fault. In fact he thought it was all because of him, after the sort of melancholic rant that he had released on them the night before. He didn't want them to fight amongst themselves, he didn't even want them to slightly disagree with one another, because, while physical confrontations were his forte, emotional confrontations were his mortal weakness. He wasn't used to experiencing any emotion that seemed remotely negative, in fact he thought there was no use for them whatsoever. Since long ago he sought to get rid of any sad feelings by always staying motivated. It had been easy for him for so long, but now he was only sad and contemplative.

It's not like Ash wanted to be sad, it just happened. This time he couldn't motivate himself out of that contemplative state, which was so novel to him that it almost felt interesting. But truthfully, Ash didn't like to think about existence, or the purpose of humanity, all of that was only thought, and thoughts alone were pointless, he thought. At least just as pointless as thoughtless actions. Even thinking of that comparison made him tired. It was necessary of him to stop thinking altogether.

But once Ash started minding his surroundings once more, and looked around, and saw that Dawn was shooting May a pretty heavy stare. Meanwhile May avoided looking at Dawn in a kind of shameless way. At the same time Misty turned from Dawn to May and then from May to Dawn with anxious eyes. Then Ash turned to Serena, who was sullenly staring at Herdier Oak, who was enjoying looking out of the window at the violent current produced by their travel, and Ash saw that Serena still felt terribly guilty. Then he turned to Paul, who was blatantly staring back at him with scorn palpable on his eyes. That's when Ash started thinking that being sad and contemplative, immersed deeply into oneself, wasn't actually that bad.

Something hit the boat from below, the floor trembled with violence and the guys felt it all the way to their knees. They hurried to the windows and started looking for signs of danger but nothing strange seemed to be there. They were right in the middle of a giant, scary river, the current of which went viciously fast and couldn't be stopped under any circumstance.

On both sides of the river there was vegetation which was so dense that nothing could be sighted past the most superficial layer. Myriads of enemies could be hidden pretty much anywhere, waiting for them.

Then something hit the boat again and the whole frame, even with its powerful engine running at full throttle, was fully stopped in a second, sending everyone on board forward from the sheer inertia with a very violent push. Before anyone could reincorporate from the force of the sudden stop they sensed how the boat started moving again, but not with the current. Instead it was pulled to the riverbank on their left.

"This is a trap, get ready!" Flint said as he took out a pokeball.

Everyone took out a pokeball and they prepared to open the doors. Another strange noise was heard, and after a few very frustrating seconds of listening to a metallic motion coming from the outside, the walls on the inside of the boat started breaking down. Whatever was outside was somehow crushing the whole boat easily, rapidly compacting the space within. They had to get out of there before the walls crushed them.

Flint was the first to react as the situation called for, he opened the door with a ruthless kick and got out first, finding himself on land all of the sudden. He rushed to help everyone out. First came out May, then Serena with Herdier Oak on her arm. Then the hairy Paul, who helped Dawn and Johanna get out. And then only Misty and Ash and Pikachu remained inside as the walls ruthlessly closed in on them and restricted their movements, right before the end. Before they could start arguing about who would sacrifice themselves, as the walls were about to crush them, Ash pushed both Misty and Pikachu out as he shouted at them to save themselves. The two of them vehemently protested and tried to force their way back in to save Ash but he didn't allow that, and overwhelmed them and forced them out.

It was all over for Ash and yet he wasn't scared, not one bit. He was confused but somehow resolute; he was convinced that his friends were fine and that gave him some reassurance. He said goodbye, and waited for the walls to close in and crush him as everyone outside shouted his name. Right then the walls stopped, just a second before what remained of them could start compacting his bones. Misty inserted her hand inside the wreckage and grabbed Ash's collar, and angrily lifted him out of there with a single pull of her arm. Then, once she was convinced that he was safe, Misty threw Ash on the ground really hard, wanting to make sure that he got hurt, so that he'd understand how mad she was at him.

"Don't ever do that again!" Misty shouted at Ash. "I get that you didn't want to come here, but you out of all people don't have the right to give up so easily!"

"I wasn't giving up!" Ash replied with passion, at the very least with energy, which he hadn't shown beforehand. "I was saving you! Jeez, you're still as ungrateful as ever."

"Take this seriously Ash. And don't you dare think that was heroic!"

"It definitely was."

"Classic Ash," Paul said, a little too pleased with himself, "you need to be the hero so desperately that you put yourself in mortal danger just to look better."

"I didn't mean it like that. I didn't want to be a hero, I just wanted to save you, and that's how it came off."

"Yeah right, what happened anyway?" Paul added as he looked at the wreckage.

It was a giant pair of metal claws, tied to a thick chain, that had caught the boat; more specifically, of what used to be a very expensive boat. It was definitely a trap, a very vicious trap that had completely destroyed their vehicle.

A man and a woman walked decisively toward the group, followed by a squad of exploud who couldn't keep their giant mouths closed even as they walked, leaving their enormous set of fangs and tongue exposed. Both man and woman were abundantly tanned. The man was extremely muscular, had big teeth in showcase with a braggart smile, and his head was fully shaved. His giant muscles were at full display as he wasn't wearing a shirt, and he had a tattoo of a strange sign in white ink right in the middle of his chest. Meanwhile the woman had lustrous black hair with some blue streaks, particularly on her side fringe; she was sporting abundant eye-shadow of a deep blue, which greatly enhanced her unusual blue eyes. It was clear she was the brains of the pair, she couldn't hide her cunning, her sharp face showed it all. Her midriff was bare, she was very fit, and she was also sporting a conceited smile on her lips.

"That sign," May said.

"Who are they?" Serena asked.

"It can't be, Team Aqua. They used to operate in Hoenn. What are they doing here?"

"What else but searching for the Golden City," Ash added somberly.

"That's right," the woman replied with sass. Her name was Shelly, on Team Aqua she was the second-in-command. "We installed that trap only a few days ago, and it's already yielding results. What brings you by these lands? You know what, save it, time is precious here, not as much as gold but still. As such, there's no time for the battle that we're supposed to have now. Sure, you may outnumber us, you may have an Elite 4 member with you, yeah, we know. Sadly for you, none of that matters if your pokemon can't hear your voice."

When she finished speaking the exploud stepped forward and opened their mouths wide. Both Shelly and the swollen man, who was Team Aqua's third-in-command, Matt, put on headphones and smiled mischievously.

"If you're going to fight," Flint exclaimed, "at least fight with honor."

Shelly kept her smile, she didn't open her mouth. She merely took out her headphones and listened as Flint repeated his words. She looked at him incredulously and casually put the headphones back on.

"Why on Earth would I do that?" she said. "Exploud! Use Boomburst!"

Ash and company promptly covered their ears, but it was of no use. The exploud's sonorous attack sounded like many loud speakers rumbling at full volume with very powerful bass, and it paralyzed the group.

Matt brought out a very large bag. He took out a few weapons from it and started tinkering with a huge gun. He was merely doing his job, for him that was nothing but the same boring procedure of everyday mischief. Luckily or not, for the group, what he fired at them was a big net that captured everyone but Dawn. The attack on their ears subsided, and while the rest were immobilized Dawn found herself overcome with a justified anger. She took out a pokeball, but before she was able to throw it an exploud caught up to her. The purple monster grabbed her arm and didn't let go. A second exploud approached and put its scaly paw over her mouth, and they immobilized her.

"Now, you may call this a dirty trick," Shelly said. "But from whichever angle you look at it, we simply bested you. You should've seen this coming. Besides, here you won't find opponents eager to wait for you to be ready, there are no referees to officiate your fights. So think of this as a valuable lesson. And hey, it's not all bad news. We're with the good guys, we'll merely rough you up a bit, won't hurt you too bad if you're good prisoners. Think of what would've happened if it had been Lance who'd gotten you first."

"Oh crap," Matt said. He saw a group of natives approaching.

They needed to react fast. Shelly knew, survival on this jungle required any alert pair of eyes to be perpetually open. Many shadows appeared running through the field, and an instant later a group of weavile had the exploud completely surrounded. Dark fur, sharp claws and fangs. A fierce expression on their faces and a palpable desire to harm were noticeable on their many piercing stares. They immediately went for the exploud's throats and struck them hatefully with a chop of their claws. Shelly could only watch as all of her pokemon were mercilessly neutralized and then they were all on the ground, with their paws on their throats, recoiling in pain. She clenched her fist and lamented the loss for just a second. Then she smiled and started walking backwards.

"One is enough, the others are done," she said to Matt. "Get her and let's get out of here before those beasts have us."

Matt nodded silently and went for Dawn. He put her over his big shoulder easily with his muscular arms which were thicker than Dawn's torso. Meanwhile she hopelessly protested by kicking the air and punching Matt's hard back, doing no damage whatsoever. They ran to a small boat hidden within some bushes near the riverbank. Matt dropped Dawn on it, Shelly jumped in and put her arm around Dawn's neck very tight, discouraging any attempts to escape. Then Matt pushed the boat into the river and jumped in right before the current snatched it away with violence. It was only because the weavile found them thoroughly unimportant and ineffective as a threat that they managed to escape.

One of the weavile slashed the net open with a simple hit, and Ash came out first with his guard up, knowing he was completely outnumbered so there was no use in trying to fight. Flint also stood up silently, making only subtle movements, then everyone else did the same imitating his careful pace. That the weavile were powerful and dangerous didn't need to be clarified, and it was obvious that the dark pokemon weren't friendly as they stared at the group in a predatory stance, waiting for any of them to do anything stupid. And if they weren't friendly, then they were enemies. And if they were enemies, then they needed to be eliminated as soon as possible. It was clear that the weavile sought to eliminate the team, and the only thing that stalled the elimination process was the preliminary stance of careful observation, the asphyxiating wait for that lethal reaction.

From the densest part of the jungle, a group of lopunny arrived, all the while the tense stare-down continued. The weavile paid no attention to the normal types approaching from behind, which could only mean that they were allies. Right behind all the lopunny came a taller mega-lopunny, clearly the leader of the pack. They walked carelessly through the stoic weavile and the leader got in front of them, and the tension seemed to decrease. Ash was in front of his group, he did his best to seem imposing, setting his back straight and putting on a serious face as the tallest lopunny went to meet him.

"Hey, my name is Ash Ketchum, I'm from Pallet Town, we come in peace," he said.

Ash extended his hand at her and gave a friendly smile. The lopunny lowered her sight and looked at his open palm for a few seconds. Then she looked at his face in silence, with a blank expression on her face. Then she punched him hard in the face and put him to sleep. The rest of the team suffered similar fates.

Serena was the first one to wake up, an hour later. She came back into herself feeling an acute but bearable pain on her left temple, and then she opened her eyes. It was of little use however, as everything around her was dark. She was inside a very large place, the walls far from her were apparently gray, but clearly decayed, and the ceiling was very high up. It seemed to be an ancient building, which still stood but was half in ruins. Right in front of her was a giant statue which was hard to discern from all the shadows that covered it, but it seemed to be of a man who was sitting down with his legs crossed, with his open hands put together as if asking for food. The head reached the ceiling, and Serena's eyes couldn't reach its darkened face.

She heard steps and murmurs with abundant echo, the place was obviously very big. Then suddenly it became completely silent, and then the steps of a single person were heard.

"Any changes in their behavior?" An imposing voice said.

"Yes, but none of them positive sir. It seems they are getting weaker, and now they refuse to eat," was the reply.

"Doesn't matter. All I need to do is find the Golden City, the power we need to restore their life is there. Trust me, they'll wake up again, stronger than ever."

"Yes sir. The prisoners are waking up."

"Take them outside."

She heard steps getting closer and then her arms were pulled heavily. Just then she realized her hands were tied together very tightly by the wrists, and she was somehow tied to whoever was next to her too. Serena was forced to get up however she could, almost falling with the heartless pulls that ensued.

"You? What has he done to you?" It was Flint's voice. Serena was tied to him.

"Be quiet please. It will be much better for you," replied the same subservient voice from before.

"But how?"

"I'll explain later."

"What's there to explain? …Unless. Unless."

"Flint, please, be quiet."

"You betrayed us."

"Please, shut up."

"So it's true? …Don't make me hate you so suddenly, say something …You miserable piece of bloodsucking trash …Why?"

"Why!" the other voice raised. "I'll tell you why," he then said, whispering with caution once more. "Cynthia had the power to take the Golden City, she could've brought the Gym Leaders, she could've stormed the Ghilera River by herself. She would be the strongest by far if she wished to be. But she wants none of it. It's all there just for her to take it, and she's frozen doing nothing to get it, all because of her misguided sense of morality. She says she wants to protect the people of Sicaum, but she can't even protect the people of Sinnoh."

"What are you talking about?"

"Every day many crimes are committed, everyday people suffer, and she can't do anything about it. She says she wants to help the world but she can't save everyone, not even a few people pleading for a hero. Not with a sense of finality; she can't erase evil from existence. At least not with the power she has now. She could take the Golden City for herself, get the riches and the power and do whatever she wants, protect people, eliminate all evil or whatever. If Cynthia is as good as she says she is, why doesn't she seize that power to get rid of everything that's bad? It's so senseless of her to stand still—so stupid. Why bother to come all the way here just the five of us? There are many powerful trainers in Sinnoh, renowned Gym Leaders that she could've brought with her."

"And she didn't bring any of them, because she knew they'd be as selfish and greedy as you've turned out to be Lucian, you traitor."

"And yet I couldn't hurt her. I had to hide my desertion. And you know what? It has costed me! When I joined Lance he asked me to take him to Cynthia. And I couldn't say yes, I couldn't do that to her. And now Lance has his sights on me. I had a way to prove myself to him, to show him my loyalty, and I couldn't do it, all because of Cynthia. How could she be so stupid? Lance understands the opportunity that we have in our hands."

"Doesn't make you right, you're still a traitor."

"Shut up, they're going to hear you now. Trust me, it's better if you're quiet."

On their way through the darkened ruins, Serena passed by a deep pit in the middle of a hallway, from which faint hisses came out. She peeped inside for just a second and managed to see blue bodies covered in goo, slithering and curling slowly inside. She heard faint moans which lacked energy, it sounded as if the creatures were suffering. Then she was pulled forward way too hard again.

The prisoners were led outside, and Serena was blinded by the sun for a little bit. She then ascertained she was tied to the rest of the prisoners, although there were only three of them in total. Flint was in front of her also tied by the hands, and poor Herdier Oak was behind her cruelly tied to them by the neck.

Waiting for them outside was a very striking figure. A man with spiky red hair, which went up like a flame on top of his head. He was wearing a long black cape which augmented his already impressive intimidating factor, and which, along with the stoically angry expression on his face, which didn't seem to ever change, as well as the ancient city that was now in ruins, upon which he was standing, made him seem like a deity in front of them.

Out of nowhere Flint freed himself from the ropes by straight up ripping them apart. He took out a pokeball and released his fearsome Magmortar which came out ready for battle.

"I instructed my people to let your pokeballs on you," Lance said calmly. "Do you know where you are?"

"My best guess, Uquegai," Flint replied.

"You're correct. The biggest and most important city of this whole region, and it moves with a wave of my finger. So, why bother?"

"Because I have no intention of becoming your prisoner."

"Taking the path of the coward I see," Lance said with his chin up.

"I think you're getting that mixed up."

"Not at all. A brave man would withstand all the torture I inflicted on him, instead of practically committing suicide in the name of false bravery. You can't bear the idea of spending hours and hours in pain, without food, used as a hostage that puts your whole team at a disadvantage. So instead you give up and pretend you're going out like a hero. But why should you destroy yourself? Is that what you're going with?"

"That's right," Flint said decisively, and right then Magmortar aimed his arm cannon at Lance. A huge blue blast came upon the fire pokemon and exploded right in front of him, raising up a bunch of smoke in the process. When it cleared, Serena and Flint discovered they were surrounded by a myriad of dragons, mostly druddigon on the ground, staring at them from behind the decayed pillars of the city, some dragonair resting on top of the ruins, and many dragonite floating on the sky, all of them observing them attentively. Lance snapped his fingers, the dragons, all of them, mercilessly attacked Magmortar with many blasts and cannons that came out of their mouths and exploded at contact with their target. For a second he alone was a war zone, and then the lone pokemon seemed to have disappeared entirely, leaving only a scorched stain on the ground.

Flint led his hands to his face, then released a piercing, high-pitched cry full of grief.

"You dare talk about what is brave!" Flint forced himself to unload his mind on Lance, out of the sheer rage that was consuming him. "You're the coward! Guarding yourself with all these mindless monsters. You're nothing without your dragons!"

"I am the Dragon," Lance calmly replied.

Flint, in his delirious state, couldn't help but let out an agitated chuckle.

"You lost your mind long ago, freak," he said.

"You don't believe me?" Lance replied.

"Believe what?"

"That I am the Dragon."

"I believe you've deluded yourself into seriously thinking you are."

"Very well then, allow me to change your mind."

Lance broke the fierce expression of his face and smirked subtly with only one side of his lip. He took off his right glove with care, then put his open hand forward, with his palm directed at Flint. Then he screamed, calling upon a very tangible rage out of him, and out of his hand came a powerful flame that slowly reached all the way to Flint, burning his face.

Flint screamed and covered his injuries with his hands as vapors emanated from his head. Serena felt his pain in his voice, she ran to him dragging Herdier Oak with her and crouched to tend to Flint with her hands still tied.

"How could you do this?" Serena cried. "You are a monster!"

She was very scared, but the level of cruelty she had just witnessed made her powerful sense of justice take complete control over her.

"Serena, keep your voice down. You should think of your safety," Herdier Oak whispered wisely.

Lance slowly walked up to them. He got right in front of Serena, who was kneeling and covering Flint with her hands however she could.

"You saw what I did to him, you can see my army, my power. And yet you choose to raise your voice at me. Interesting."

Serena looked up at him. She realized instantly that Lance could easily finish her right there and then. His decision to do so depended solely on how he felt on that very moment. Because she didn't matter to him. It was all over his face. He didn't need to teach her a lesson, he didn't want to watch her suffer, he didn't need to. Perhaps he had done it so many times already, that inflicting pain on others had lost all of its sense of novelty, and had become nothing but a chore. Serena saw the mental back and forth in Lance's eyes, she was overwhelmed by fear. There were many things that she regretted, so many in fact, that she thought of her life as nothing but a senseless tragedy. She had objectives to accomplish, mistakes to correct, and feelings to confess. It had been so hard for her to stay motivated as the tasks to complete became incredibly difficult, and that was before the adventure in hand turned out to be much more dangerous. And yet, she couldn't accept her fate which seemed unavoidable, because she wanted to live.

"Lance!" Lucian exclaimed. "We could use her as leverage. She was with Flint so Cynthia probably cares about her."

Lance kept staring at Serena with a somber expression on his face. He almost looked bored. He began turning his head very slowly towards Lucian, who was on his left. And every second that passed, as his eyes traveled from Serena to Lucian, made both of them fear for their lives more and more.

"You haven't contributed anything to my cause ever since you decided to follow me. You didn't want to lead me to Cynthia. And now you're trying to manipulate me, just because you feel bad for what I've done to your friend."

"No, you've got it all wrong. That's not it at all. I was just saying that-"

Lucian froze as Lance started making his way toward him.

"There's no point in keeping you around," Lance said.

Lucian's legs started shaking, and then he fell on his knees.

"Lance, what is all this noise?" A woman appeared. She had her wild blue hair tied into a ponytail, and her face had the same resting expression as Lance's—fierce and aggressive—although her eyes were jarringly of a gentle blue, and quite striking at that. She was also wearing a cape, but her clothes revealed the traces of her slender figure much more clearly.

Lance's face lightened up as soon as he saw her, and he ignored both Lucian and Serena and went over to her.

"It's time to get rid of Lucian," Lance said.

"Took you long enough," the blue haired woman said. Her name was Clair, she was the leader of the Blackthorn Gym as well as Lance's cousin. She was also a high-ranking member of the Dragon Clan hailing from Johto, of which Lance was the leader. "He hasn't contributed anything to our cause, won't even tell us where Cynthia is. Want me to deal with him?"

"No, he isn't worth the effort. You should save your energies for something productive."

"It'll only take me a minute," Clair said.

"I know, but I would prefer if he retained his ability to speak, so that he tells me where Cynthia is hiding before he's gone. So leave him to me."

"Why are you doing this?" Serena said from the ground. She had been thoroughly intimidated so her tone had changed, but she just couldn't keep quiet. "How can you be so cruel?"

"The dragons are dying," Lucian said with a tone of despair. After fully understanding what Lance had done to Flint, he realized what a horrible mistake he had made by joining the Dragon Clan. Of course, it was too late for him to correct it, it was simply too late for him. Lucian accepted his condition as a traitor and, at the very least, he bowed not to make any more mistakes that hurt his group, his actual group; the one he had betrayed. "Lance is growing desperate because the dragons are getting weaker and weaker. None of them are evolving anymore. He used to be reasonable, and fair-"

Lance was standing next to Lucian who was kneeling on the ground, and he just couldn't accept the words that the traitor had dared to say. He smacked Lucian's cheek really hard with the back of his hand and knocked him out.

"You don't have the right to speak of the dragons that way!" Lance shouted, his voice sounded like a strenuous thunder. It was so frightening that both Serena and Herdier Oak closed their eyes and shrieked backwards. Lance looked at Lucian laying unconscious on the ground, and calmed down a bit. "I guess he can't hear me anymore. I'll let him know once he wakes up, one last time. Because we, the Dragons, aren't dying. We're merely aching for the new world to come and redeem us. We're wiser and more capable of observing the changing paradigms of the world than any other being in existence. We have realized that this world cages us, inhibits us and keeps us docile, unaware of our incredible potential. We used to be the top of the food chain, and although it might seem like that's not the case anymore, our current condition is but a rather timely signal. A call for us to herald our eternal might and power. And it is here that we'll find the key to bring it forth. I, will restore the Dragon Clan to its former glory, because that is what is asked of me. And I know exactly how to usher in the new world as a purified body with us as its head. First, I must be like the numel, which carries all of its heavy burdens, its humiliations and its ignorance to the lonely desert, and does as told. Then I must become like the pyroar, which rebels against its master and becomes enemies with him, all because it can't bear to listen to his orders, which he has uncovered as lies, feeling them empty as they boggle down his internal desires. The pyroar defeats the 'you must' from his master, with the 'you want' from his spirit. Finally, I must then become like a little kid. Do you know why, must I turn from a mighty pyroar to an innocent child?" Lance asked Clair, who already knew the answer.

"Tell me," she said anyway, with a soft smile on her lips, her entertained eyes eager to take more of Lance's performance.

"Because a kid is a new beginning, a fresh, untainted start. No more questioning of the old laws which don't exist for the kid, no more uncovering of falsehoods. Instead of reacting, aching for freedom, all the kid knows is freedom, moving on his own. There are no laws to change for the kid. He is free to make the law as he pleases. When I have obtained the power, and become like a child, the world will be ours again, to make up as we please."

Lance looked at Clair in a way that seemed wrong of him to do, with a tender expression on his face. He gently caressed her cheek. Clair in turn reached her face for his touch, and smiled softly.

"We'll be able to do whatever we want, and it will be so for the world. Our world," Lance finalized. "Take Flint and Lucian to the dungeon, keep their senses working adequately."

"What about the girl and the rags tied to her?"

Lance looked at Serena, who once more feared for her life.

"You're a monster!" Serena blurted out. She couldn't help herself. It had come out of her from anger as much as it had been from sheer nervousness.

"I like you," Lance said, then he turned to Clair. "Tie her hands behind her back. And cover her eyes, but keep her mouth open. I want to see how far my patience goes."


End file.
